Hitting the Incline, March 14

 

Soren, Dad, and I had been wanting to hike the Incline, a straight mile of stairs that's built on old railway tracks, so we were glad a nice day came along during spring break we could take advantage of. The trailhead is right near the start of the legendary Cog Railway, which heads up to the top of Pikes Peak. Pictured above is the view from the parking lot. 

We got off to a good start, heading up right in front of some middle-aged folks, including one woman who was wearing dress shoes with a slight heel (what about "The Incline" doesn't make sense?). We didn't see them for the rest of the hike.

The fun didn't last long. It got rough.

At least everyone was suffering together.

I did end up getting some pretty good pictures of the terrifically boring plains of eastern CO, as well as Garden of the Gods (second from the bottom) and some of the mountains that were burnt in the Waldo Canyon Fire of 2012. 

Pictures don't capture how truly steep this hike was. Looking down, I felt like if I slipped I would tumble right on back to the trailhead. Sometimes I was on my hands and knees climbing up sets of steps. If a precarious sort of wooden ladder built into the side of a mountain is considered stairs, then boy does the Incline have stairs. Probably the worst part was seeing how the climb got progressively steeper as I neared the summit (I say "I" because Soren was far gone and Dad was just a tiny red speck above me by this point). 

For all my complaining I did enjoy it and am glad to have done it, but probably won't ever be like the old man we saw walking down the stairs backwards who told Soren he casually did the whole thing twice a day. This picture was taken at the summit.

The hike down on Barr Trail had some great views of Pikes Peak (top) and Cameron Cone. This is the trail that leads up to Barr Camp, which is a waypoint on the way to the summit of Pikes Peak. Hopefully we'll be able to backpack that this summer, which has been a goal of ours for a while.

There was a really pretty valley that we kind of hiked down into on the descent, but I wasn't able to fully capture it with the camera.

Finally down! It was an experience I was glad to have.

And for a update on more recent proceedings: Mom and I participated in the Colorado Trombone Festival today, which was great fun, and performed with the mass trombone choir at the end of it, which Dad kindly recorded. The event was a full day of performances, classes, and Q&A sessions and I'll post about the whole thing when I'm not so tromboned-out. See you then!