Pikes Peak or Bust

I've been having loads of fun with friends and the sun lately, since the weather here has been incredible! Lots of sun and pool fun with Abby and Sarafia. I had them over one night for some pool fun followed by a lovely spaghetti dinner and a movie. Abby made the spaghetti, I made the garlic bread (and burned some of it....but I ate the burned pieces!) and Sarafia made the lemonade.

Sarafia and Abby in my kitchen. :)

A couple days after that, Abby left for her home state of Michigan to have a small vacation with her family. She'll be gone for almost 2 weeks and I miss her terribly already!

On a whim, I called up Sarafia to ask if she'd want to make the drive up to the summit of Pike's Peak with me. Originally, I'd wanted to see the Peak for the first time after I'd hiked the Barr Trail that leads up to the top, but realistically that will take quite some time to get me physically ready for such a task. Also, my curiosity was quickly peaked when I spied a small light on the very top of the mountain early one morning when I was opening Starbucks. It glinted so close to the sky it nearly blended in with the stars that still shone, and I immediately wanted to know what and who was up on top of that mountain at 4am.

So the following day, Saturday, Sarafia and I headed to Pike's Peak Tollway as soon as she left work. Not gonna lie, I was nervous about the drive. I'd heard rumors about the hairpin switchbacks and the narrow gravel roads with no guard rails. I'd never driven in such an environment, and as far as I know, neither had Sarafia. Since she has a 4-wheel drive vehicle and I have a 1999 Toyota Corolla, we decided it would be best if she drove, just in case. So off we went, Pike's Peak or Bust.

About halfway up the mountain lies Crystal Lake Reservoir. It's as clear as its name says it is, and as cold as you'd expect a water source halfway up a mountain to be! It's a beautiful Lake and lots of Colorado folk drive up there to fish or hang out on its small but lovely beaches. Sarafia and I stopped to look around and take some pictures.

As most of you know, I can't resist the water. So Sarafia and I made our way down to the lake and took off our shoes to dip our toes in the frigid and crystal clear water. As we watched the minnows play in the sand and mud stirred up by our feet, we suddenly heard a very small and very scared cry behind us. A small girl was running along the beach crying. She was obviously lost, and crying for her mother. Sarafia, maternal heart that she is ;), jumped immediately out of the water and towards the crying girl, completely forgetting about her shoes and socks. I watched, bemused, as she comforted the girl, stopped her crying, won her trust, took her hand, and lead her back towards the Reservoir gift shop and snack bar all in about 3 minutes. I simply picked up her shoes and followed.

After letting the woman in the gift shop know that we had found a lost child, we looked around the parking lot and area and the little girl pointed out her family's car, so at least we knew they were still in the park somewhere. We decided to sit and wait outside the gift shop for the girl's family. She'd finally told us (told Sarafia, who she refused to let go of :) ) her name, and we sat and listened, thinking we'd see her family searching or at least hear them calling for her. We waited and waiting without seeing or hearing anyone. I eventually started to get a little ticked off. I mean, if YOU had lost a four year old child next to a RESERVOIR on the top of a MOUNTAIN, wouldn't you be a little frantic? Eventually, after her family could not be located, the woman running the gift shop called in a Ranger who came and sat with us for a little bit, gathering information from the girl. He then left her in our care once again as he went to search the trails for her family.

He came back about 10 minutes later with a man (who barely looked to be in his 20's) and a little boy. They collected the little girl with nothing more than an embarrassed 'thank you' and a tiny nod. Really? You lost your little 4 year old girl on a MOUNTAIN and all you can do is look embarrassed when you find her safe?? How about relieved, grateful, happy, that we found your child and not a pedophile, or a mountain lion? Needless to say, Sarafia and I were a bit frustrated with the situation as we left to continue our journey up the mountain. But continue we did, and the amazing views soon wiped away our lingering annoyance, and replaced it with awe.

The last checkpoint before you begin to rapidly gain altitude and you enter the "Alpine Zone".

The views over the side of the road begin to get more and more heart stopping!

Finally, after about a 40 minute drive, we arrived at the summit! And it was FREEZING up there! A couple of Asian tourists took this picture for us, so sorry that it's off center. Then they asked if I'd be in their picture, so of course I said Sure! and climbed back up into the picture, so somewhere on some Japanese facebook there's a picture of me. Heh.

Sarafia made a friend and the Summit snack shop/gift shop/Cog Railway Station.

This is the monument built to honor Katherine Bates. After her first trip up to Pike's Peak, she was so inspired by the amazing views that she went home and penned the poem that would become the patriotic tune we all know and love: America the Beautiful.

And after seeing the views from the top myself, I certainly can see where she got her inspiration.

That dirt edge you see at the bottom of this picture, is the edge of the ROAD. Yes, quite unnerving. But the views are great!

Views from the Peak.

So I've heard a lot about a creature called a "Yellow-bellied Marmot"since I've come to Colorado. Apparently they live in very high altitudes. I'd yet to have come across one, until driving back down Pike's Peak Tollway, when I saw not one, but TWO of the critters! We managed to snap a picture of one, it looks like a mixture between a groundhog and a beaver.

We stopped at the Inn that marks the halfway point up the mountain, or the area before you enter the Alpine Zone, or just after you leave the Alpine Zone depending on which direction you're traveling. The cafe inside was right up my alley, and my parent's alleys as well, so I took a picture. If you know my family, you'll see why it made me think of them. :) And then there was a large bear...with an even larger bear butt. So of course we took a picture. And no, the bear isn't real. It's stuffed. :)

So Sarafia and I made it back down the mountain safely, and about an hour later my ears finally popped and I could hear again. :) A great trip, and an experience I whole-heartedly recommend to all who travel to Colorado Springs for a visit. The views are legendary and indescribable (to all of us who are not Katherine Bates), and I can't wait to summit another fourteener, as the native mountaineers say. :)

Stay tuned, more adventures to come!

Manitou Adventure

An outing with Abby is always an adventure, but this hike would turn out more adventurous than either of us had counted on! I had read about the old Manitou railway hike on www.localhikes.com (of course) and wanted to hike it as soon as possible! The trail was unique in that it lead you through 6 tunnels that were carved out of the mountain almost 200 years ago for a railroad. While the railroad is long gone, the tunnels and the trail still remain, and it sounded like a good time to me! Abby agreed, and we met up in the early afternoon and set off on our Manitou Railway adventure!

Here we are up the trail; which starts just behind a guardrail on highway 24, west of Manitou and near Waldo Canyon.
For the first half mile or so, the trail winds along above the highway.

The rock ledges and cliffs are quite lovely on the way up the trail. :)

And then, seemingly out of nowhere, the first of the tunnels appears in the rock wall. Of course Abby and I both immediately scramble for our cameras. :)

The first 3 tunnels are pretty short, and you're able to see light immediately. The fourth tunnel is longer and requires a good flashlight to navigate safely. The tunnels were fun and full of echoes, old fire pits, and lots of surprises along the way.

One of the shorter tunnels.
The views coming out of the tunnels were amazing! Especially exiting the first tunnel, it was like entering another world! You hear the traffic from the highway behind you, but as soon as you emerge from the first tunnel all you hear is nature an all you see is beautiful cliffsides!

The third tunnel leads almost immediately into the fourth and darkest tunnel on the trail.

The longest tunnel lead into pitch blackness. Eerie, isn't it? :)

But we eventually found the light at the end of the tunnel. *snicker*

We did leave the trail at one point to explore another side trail we found, and we ended up being trespassers. Whoops! :) But we eventually found our way back to the trail and back into the tunnels.

The last tunnel was neat because it still had the original wooden support beams that the trains would have passed through.

The website did warn that the trail ended halfway through this tunnel when you reached a cinder block gate. Beyond the gate was private property, and you weren't supposed to pass it.

There was quite a surprise waiting for Abby and I at the gate, however, and I must admit it made us feel right at home. :)

Needs some work, but it could be a great location? Haha. We laughed hard when we found this!

Knowing Abby's love for trespassing (just kidding, friend! ;) ), I wasn't surprised when she passed through the gate anyway and headed up the tunnel for a few more feet. There were a lot of interesting things to be found in the dark tunnel, ancient bath tubs, this old fashioned cement mixer/pourer...

Lots of interesting things. But the real adventure started when we turned around and made our way out of the trail and back to my car.

The website I find my hiking trails on is great for a lot of reasons, but one of my favorite things about it is that it allows for anonymous reviews of every hike. It's nice to be able to read what all the hikers that went before you had to say about the experience. They leave great tips about easy ways to follow the trail, what conditions to expect, landmarks not to miss, and in the case of this trail, dangerous places to watch out for on the trail. I had read on review that warned of an area that had been seriously washed out and had left little to no path. It was only a very small part of the trail, maybe about a five foot patch. I recognized it as the place I'd read about as soon as Abby and I came across it the first time. The trail was almost completely washed vertical in one area, and the entire cliffside was made of nothing but perilously slippery gravel pieces. The shelf we were hiking on was pretty darn steep in that area, and falling off of the trail would leave you sliding down gravel covered side of the mountain for probably a good 200 feet before the ground would stop you, and by then you'd be sliced to ribbons by all the tiny granite gravel pieces and tree roots you'd hit on the way down, not to mention bones that would probably break when you finally hit level ground.

All around, not a good scenario.

We managed a clean crossing on the way in, me being much more nervous about it than Abby (as usual ;) ), but it was a different story on the way out. As soon as we came around the curve in the trail and saw the washed out part of the trail ahead, I slowed down and said: "Uh-oh, here's the part I don't like again."

No sooner had these words left my mouth than the gravel shifted out from under Abby's feet, and down the side of the cliff she went. I was stunned for a second, and stood paralyzed as I watched Abby fall and begin to slide down the side of the mountain. I'm pretty sure I yelled her name, and all I remember Abby doing is putting her feet out to try and slow herself, and yelling "Catch me, catch me, catch me!"

Which is exactly what I did. I saw a tree root sticking out of the side of the cliff next to me, grabbed it with one hand while I slid down the sharp gravel to catch Abby with my other hand. Thank goodness for that tree root, because without it I have do doubt Abby and I both would have taken off down the slippery cliffside. There was almost no way to gain any kind of purchase in the gravel, but I dug y shoes in as best I could and clung to the tree root as Abby began to pull herself back up by the arm I was clinging to.

Now, you'd think this sounded like a pretty desperate situation, right? I suppose it was, but all Abby and I could do was laugh as we tried to fight our way back up onto a solid footing. At one point I actually had to say "Stop laughing! You can't pull yourself up if you're laughing!" Which is true, since for some unknown scientific reason, you lose all strength in your muscles when you go into a laughing fit.

Anyway, she pulled herself to safety, and using the root, I pulled MYself to safety, and then we proceeded to hang onto an outcropping of shrubbery and laugh until we couldn't laugh anymore. After getting a hold of ourselves and removing ourselves from the dangerous area, we finally lost the adrenaline and giggles, and began to take stock of ourselves. Abby's arms were pretty cut up, and I looked down to discover blood dripping down my leg. None of this was surprising considering the sharp gravel we'd both taken a dive it, and I affectionately named it my "Indiana Jones wound" since I felt like an action movie hero for those few moments when I had reached out and snagged Abby's arm.

She even took a picture of it. This blog is privy to more wounds than it should be.

Well, after that ending to our Manitou Railroad trail adventure, Abby wasn't super keen to continue adventuring like we'd planned. I was going to take her to Ute Falls, or Graffiti falls. You should recognize that name from an earlier blog. Abby'd never seen the falls, and I'd never been behind the falls, so we'd planned to see it after finishing the tunnel trail. It was a warm day, so I thought it would be fun to walk into the stream and see the cave behind the falls.

Being the hardcore girl that she is, Abby put aside her near death experience and we made our way up to the falls.

Remember how amazing the falls are from in front?

Well they are a MILLION times cooler from INSIDE!

The water was a little cold, as mountain streams are made mostly from snow melt from the peaks, but it felt wonderful after two hikes, and it was so much fun to see the 'inner workings' of the falls! The cave under the falls is quite large, and full of other tiny waterfalls and interesting rock formations. The water from the main falls is falling HARD and FAST, and hurts if you get caught under it, but there is a big enough opening close to the cave walls that you can sneak by without getting pummeled by thousands of gallons of falling water.

The experience behind the falls filled our adventurous spirits back up and we were both happy that we'd gone, despite our already trying day. :)

This lion on the wall of the falls represents Abby's courage and determination to adventure through adversity (and the tiredness of pregnancy! ;) ). She's an awesome hiking partner and I'll take her on every trail I can get her on before her due date looms too closely! :)

Hope you're all having a wonderful week! Stay tuned, more to come!

Garden of the Gods

Sorry about the lack of blogging lately, I've just been so incredibly busy with lot of important things. Many of them. All important.

...no, really.

;)

A few tan lines and sunburns later, I decided it was once again time to hike the fabulous hills, mountains, and red rock formations that make up Colorado Springs. One of my new friends from work volunteered to come with me. Her name is Sarafia, and she's a pretty darn good time, I must admit. We decided to hike the trails in the Garden of the Gods. Since my last trip to the Garden left me with a bloody leg and a wounded pride, I was eager to have a better experience and further (and hopefully less painful) exploration. Well I've said it before and I'll say it again: The Garden of the Gods is INCREDIBLE. With its unique bright red rocks, its awe inspiring views, and, come spring, its blossoms, you can hardly ask for more from a hike.

...except for maybe some rocks to scramble around on. And the Garden does not disappoint there either! Scrambling, or rock climbing without official permission, training, or safety gear, is frowned upon in the park, but as long as you don't fall off and die I don't think anyone will make a big to-do about it. *snicker*
While traipsing and trailing it around the park, Sarafia and I would randomly leave the trail to climb something that looked interesting. (Translation: I would leave the trail and Sarafia would yell: "Where are you going?" to which I'd reply: "Look at this ROCK! We have to climb it!")

The rock above provided a lovely place for a shadow play, which Sarafia and I gladly put on for an audience that consisted of a slightly confused but patient family of four. I think they'll appreciate it more when they've had time to discuss it amongst themselves and recognize it for the true piece of art it was....or they'll just talk about the 'crazies' in the park.

We continued to climb up and around that rock formation until we could get no higher and go no farther forward lest we fall off the edge and down to our deaths. Since it was a dangerous and life threatening situation we found ourselves in on the edge of that cliff, of course it turned into a perfect Kodak moment opportunity!


And yes, that is exactly as DOWN as it looks. :)


Sarafia did not appreciate me making her hold that pose while I took the picture. Brave as she is, it's never fun to lean over a precipice like that and look down for long. :)

Sarafia and I on the edge!

I did actually find another way around that lead a little higher, so of course I went. I blame it on my new shoes. They're so sticky and handy for climbing! Sarafia proved herself wiser than I and stayed at the bottom while I climbed up to get this picture of the view below and behind me.

After we had our fill of scrambling for a bit, we got back to the trail and continued our hike. The views you come across around every corner in the Garden are all photo worthy, this was one of my favorites.

But it wasn't complete without our grinning faces in front of it.

On our way out of the Garden, we stumbled across a bathroom that Sarafia immediately made a break for. As she was heading in, a man heading out said "It smells like 20 bears peed all over in there." Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to warn Fia before she'd already disappeared inside. Pity. I thought I'd take a picture of her on the way out to see if I could capture on her face what I'd heard from the unfortunate fellow. If the women's was as bad as the men's, she didn't seem too offended by the alleged bear perfume.

While driving out of the park, we stopped to scramble around some more on some of the rocks at the high point of the park. The sun was setting ,and therefore the lighting was ripe for some heroic poses. If you know me, then you know what's coming next. :)

Yep. You know it.

I am rather proud of this picture. I love the blooming plant right in the center and the Garden's beautiful rock formations framing it in the background. That picture is my computer's background right now.

Aaaaaaaand of course I can't end on a serious artistic note no matter how hard I try.

Hence the seal-like posture I'm striking here as I stop to smell the flowers. :)

After the successfully sweaty and fun hike, Sarafia and I ended the evening with ice cream from Dairy Queen and a Disney movie from my extensive collection. A good time all around!

Coming soon: The hike with Abby through the old Manitou Railway Tunnels! During which we visit 'Starbucks', blatantly trespass on private property, and Abby falls off the side of a cliff. Stay tuned!