OUR FAMILY ADVENTURE

Here is a log of our travels from Colorado to Wyoming.  We decided it would be more fun to stay off of the Interstates and take the scenic routes.   This of course doubled our travel time but was well worth the extra time for the spectacular views.  The Rocky Mountains are magnificent in size and beauty.  They are also so steep when climbing and pulling a huge, heavy trailer that we were reduced to going about 25 miles an hour in some of the steepest spots….and guess what we weren’t the slowest wooooohoooooo!!!

Here are the pictures from the car. Keep in mind we were moving and the windows were dirty so hard to get good shots but you get the idea and the beauty of the drive.

We did it again.  We conquered another hill.  This time we hiked the Manitou Incline which is a very steep old railroad track that goes a mile straight up a mountain.  After hiking the hikes we have done over the past week it didn’t seem so bad to go up a mountain for a mile. 

This time the hikers were myself, Honey and Bob Droog (referred to as Boobie D) The hike isn’t so much difficult on the legs as it is in breathing and steepness.  Now if you’re hiking with two young whipper snappers like I was you might feel slow and old.  However I have justification…..I’ve had many many more beers and burritos over the years that I am also hauling up the incline.   I would step step step step…..breeeeaaaaathe….breeeeeaaathe….breeeeeathe. Okay do it again…step step step…breeeeeeaaaathe.  I did feel better because I was not the only one doing this method of climbing.  The 80-year-old guy behind us was doing it too hahahaaha! 

When you initially hit the incline it’s not so bad.  It gradually goes up to the HOLY SHIT part which is the straight up and I mean straight up.  I was climbing stairs like it was a ladder. Yes that means I used my hands too.  I had visions of my chunky dunk falling backward and bowling over every other hiker apologizing the whole way down…roll roll roll…sorry sir, sorry ma’am, sorry little 20-year-old size 0 girl, sorry 80-year-old man practicing for the Swiss Alps hike, sorry 18-year-old highschool dude hiking it in your flip-flops (wtf?), sorry dudes and ladies who are gnarly badasses running up it. I was raised properly and that means having manners as you roll to your death. You apologize to those you’re taking out with you.   At one point it was so steep I thought about taking my Camelbak off and carrying it in front of me so it wouldn’t pull me over.  Since that would look funny I decided to lean ALL the way forward nearly kissing the step in front of me (cuz that didn’t look funny LMAO)

Honey and Boobie D were moving up it like they were going up stairs at home to take a nap. They patiently waited for me occupying themselves by laughing at me and even taking a moment to video my climbing style. :/ lol As Honey checked out berries on the way up Boobie was checking out the scenery. It was a lot of fun the entire way up.  We were throwing insults at each other. (out of love of course)

Then we get to the top.  NOT!!!  It’s plain trickery. You get to the top only to find out it’s not the top. There’s an even steeper incline portion to go up and even worse all the people who already made it to the top are sitting on the top step watching the rest of the hikers climb the last part they didn’t know about. HAH.  I suck in my gut and try to straighten up and go up. Nope too worried about rolling down so I use my hands and haul my butt up the rest of the way not caring if I look funny. At least I won’t fall!

After hanging at the top and taking some pictures we decide to take the Barr Trail back. Most people take the trail back since the incline is so steep you can blow out a knee going down. Yikes…that’d hurt. So we whistled dixie all the way back taking some time to play on the rocks and chit-chat about everything. 

All in all it was a fantastic day. We had a lot of fun and look forward to the next adventure.

For more information on the incline go to the following link….(pretty interesting)

http://www.manitouincline.net/main.htm

(In reference to “A Tale of Two Hikes!”)

We thought we saw a beaver; however a beaver we did not.

Our beaver was not a beaver but a yellow bellied marmot

So back on the list of things to see it goes

Even though they both have the same nose

We should’ve double checked the tail

Our species identification was a fail

One of the things Chris and I wanted to do while in Yoder, CO was to get some good hiking in while JoeJoe was off with Grammy in California.  Our goal was to see some nice scenery and get some solid hikes under our belts and boy did we.   Our goal was to hike Pikes Peak.  After looking into it we decided we would try to hike the bottom half and if that went well we would take another day to hike the top half.

Hike – 1

For the bottom half of themountain we started at the bottom of the mountain and decided to hike to the halfway point which is a spot called Barr Camp.  This is the rest stop and overnight camping spot for people to rest before hiking back down or going the rest of the way to the top.  From the bottom it’s a 6.5 mile hike to the camp. whew!!! The hike was beautiful tiring but not too difficult.  The altitude was a bit hard since it gives me headaches. What can I say I’m a flatlander. Our hike took us about 6.5 hours to do a little over 13 miles. The next day…..we couldn’t walk!

Here are the pictures of the hike to Barr Camp:

Cool views on the hike through the mountains...you're just surrounded by mountains it's beautiful.In thr far distance you can see the summit of Pikes Peak....it's very far away!!

Pikes Peak Summit....we are going halfway

Really cool spots like this cave you have to walk through on the trail....really awesome and a nice spot to cool off.

Barr trail it really was a beautiful trail to follow....the trees helped to stay cool as we got closer to our destination.

Honey taking a break on a rock while I caught my breath because I couldn't breath. lol

Me resting still!

We make it to Barr Camp and eat some food and rest and we had a little vister come on our table begging for food. He was a friendly little buddy!

he was so cute we couldn't resist and gave him some food which he enjoyed right on the table by our packs.

Honey doing a supply check before heading back down. We just did 6.5 miles up now we have to go back 6.5 miles.

I was so happy to see bathrooms at the camp. YAY!

We took a moment to do the dorky shot LOL

More of the trail....it was a really nice trail. There were people running (ya I said running) the entire trail training for a marathon in August. There were some serious respectable runners.

Honey testing the waters.....yep it was freeeeeeezing!

Beautiful streams everywhere...I can't get enough of it!

Cool bridges to cross the streams.....

Climbing you can look back and see Colorado Springs....

Hike- 2

3 days after doing the first hike we decide to climb the top half of Pikes Peak.  This time Tim (my brother) went on the hike with us. The total distance was the same as the bottom half hike so we planned on about the same time maybe a little more to account for the altitude.  This time we are taking Crags Trail which starts about 9400 feet.  This time we were going to 14,100 feet and that’s pretty high up there.  Little did we know…..

We start the day early we get up at 4 am to hit the road for an 1 1/2 drive to the trailhead.  We get to the trailhead and it’s 42 degrees…time to put on the jacket.  I’m a cold wuss! Of course cold makes me have to pee so thankfully the trailhead had some potties.  We get ready to head out…..

After getting on the trail we immediately hit a little bridge with a flowing stream. This makes me happy!!  It was absolutely gorgeous. Unbelievably green and more streams which I love. I can’t help but stare at everything.

As we’re walking and enjoying the trees and streams and rocks juttin gout of the ground. You get the sense of this being a simple hike similar to what we did 3 days prior. Not a problem. We’ll be up and down and back home by 3pm with a beer in hand.  HAH! As we round a corner we are hit with reality!

A straight up incline…and we already can’t breath what the Pikes Peak is this going to do for my breathing. Yikes! Little did we know! So we carry on….still holdling up pretty good.

As we get up the steep parts we head to the treeline.  This is where the trees literally stop growing. You are bare butt mountain.  Fully exposed to whatever elements may decide to appear as the mountain top has weather all it’s own. I had read where if you see thunderheads coming in and you’re above the treeline you need to get down to the treeline quickly. So me and my imagination of course start working full time on the fact that I am going to get hit by lightening.  Maybe if I run zigzag on the mountain I won’t get hit.  (magical thinking again….hey it worked in Vallecito didn’t it?)

As you can see from the pictures there is a definite tree line….when you look back you realize how far you’ve gone and when you look ahead you realize how far you still need to go. However we continue on with determination and no air to breath.  As we walk along we come across a little critter…..Yeeeehaw! It’s a beaver (heh heh heh a REAL beaver) interestingly enough one of the items on my list was to see a real beaver in the wild. cross one off the list. carry on troopers…..

After visiting the beaver (hahahahahaha that’s funny in more ways than one) we carry on our way. We get to approximately the halfway point and stop for a bite to eat with the snow. Ya snow in July on this mountain….You can see in the second picture listed below the summit….still quite a ways to go. (it’s the round rocky mountain in the background)

After getting a bite to eat we hike on….still bare butt mountain is what we’re climbing. We are needing to stop often to catch our breath. Also at this point we are seeing birds very close…..we’re so high up we are catching up with the height the birds fly at. On one of our breaks we look back at our lunch spot. We also come across some pretty cool rock paths. We take the opportunity to take some picture of ourselves. We’re still feeling pretty good at this point. No problems other than breathing and “drunk legs” LOL

So we hike on and on and on….we make it to the scenic point in the trail where you can look at what they call the bottomless pit. It is beautiful and man are we way up in the sky. There is also a point where you can see the road where the many many visitors drive up the mountain which is a 2 hour drive from top to bottom. You can see where the trail follows the road however hikers are not allowed on the road. You can get a big big fine if you’re on the road and there’s a bit of a respect to it to. I put a red line on one of the pictures to show where the trail goes…..it was windy and made me nervous. I imagined myself rollie pollie-ing right down the bottomless pit….

As we carry on. We follow along the trail. It is getting steeper at this point and we are really feeling the lack of air. We are walking  along a path to which we can see the road where the cars drive up. We have switchbacks all the way up.  My legs at this point are feeling the lack of oxygen and I am just about asking myself why I decided to do this. For being no trees and streams it really is kind of cool up the mountain. You can see the summit in the background which is the round rocky part. The part where it’s solid boulders and that is going to be our last hike up the summit. What I believe they call devil’s playground. I myself prefer to call it bullshit. I would love to say I troopered right up the last part to the summit. However I didn’t. The last part of the summit is the quickest in elevation to climb. Every few steps I was getting dizzy and thought I was going to puke. We lost the trail quite a few times which is normal in the summit section.  You can see in the pictures the cairns (the big piles of rocks) which is the only way to know where to go.  A few times I thought about quitting but didn’t want to look like a total “wuss” so I carried on. I welcomed lightening to strike me. I’d hike 10 steps and sit down to make the black spots go away. I wanted my binkie and ninnie and just take a nap on the rocks. I wanted to cry and luckily I didn’t. I wanted to conquer the mountain and beat the altitude. I crawled over boulders on my hands a knees……literally crawled. So I carried on….and on….and on…..and on…..

By the time we reached the summit I could not lift the camera let alone take immediate pictures. I couldn’t even carry my pack up the rocky summit portion.  As we work our way towards the summit house I can’t help but feel disappointed and elated at the same time.  It took us 6 hours to climb to the summit (farthest time from setting a record that’s for sure) and it was packed with people who drove or rode the train. I was mad like I owned the mountain and I had some right to it. She was mine damnit. lol (who was pretty close to tears only about 10 minutes prior LOL hmmmm must’ve forgot about that)  I couldn’t breath, every muscle in my body hurt, I was hungry and I wanted most of all to sit down. We get ourselves to the summit house which is a huge gift shop of people buying useless stuff. The first thing I hear and see is a woman who clearly drove or rode the train picking up a sticke that says “got oxygen?” and she’s laughing loudly taking wide breaths and saying to her friend “get it hahaha it’s because we can’ t breath up here.” If I had the energy I would’ve choked her (in my mind I’m always more of a badass than I am). All I thought was OMG you have enough oxygen right now to laugh. argh! We finally find a table and sit down to eat and rest and hydrate.  Come to find out after researching Pikes Peak we found it is the most visited peak in North America due to the train and ability to drive up it. It is also the second most visited in the world.  The drive to the summit from the bottom is a two hour round trip drive. Pretty crazy drive. They even have heat guns or something like that on the brakes of cars as they go down because people burn out their brakes so bad.

After getting rested for a bit I get over my arrogant attitude (wherever that came from. LOL lack of oxygen perhaps?)and realize the beauty of where we are. I decide whether you hike, crawl, drive, fly or ride the train it is one hell of a sight to see. Amazingly beautiful. You can see all of Colorado Springs and even as one guy mentioned you can see the buildings of Denver, Co.  You can see the amazment of every face there. Everyone is astonished at the massivness of the mountain.  It is probably one of the only places I have ever seen where there is not one single bored look on anyone’s face.  Well worth the pain and suffering. You just see the knowing look on peoples faces.  You feel the discomfort of people as they look at you realize you hiked up it. It’s the same look we were giving the people who rode up. It’s the same look either way “why did you do it that way?” Then questioning comfort passes and you share the beauty of it.

Then we check the time and realize crap…..we have to hike back down. OH HOLY CRACKER JACKS!!!! I’m already sore. Before we head down we take a moment to get pictures with the sign.

Heading down the mountain is quicker and easier to breath.  However it’s harder on the knees and toes.  You have kind of a second breath hit you knowing you on your way to the end/home but as you go further down you realize just how far it was going up.  There were a lot of statements made such as “did we really climb this part?” “Were we really right here?” “Haven’t we reached the treeline yet” “Who’s idea was this anyway” On the summit climb down Tim stepped on a rock and his foot slipped off the back of hit and he fell hard in a hole right on his back. Scared the crap right out of me. Luckily we filled our water in our camelbacks at the top and he landed mostly on that. He did hit his side and we did some double checking before continuing our descent.  Skeeeerrrrrrry! :/

On the way down right after we reached the bottom of the summit climb. Honey had to take a moment to run up a hill to get to the snow. Mine and Tim’s response to that little jaunt up the hill “that’s the LAST thing I want to do right now.”   Chris’s response to the run up “Oh that gave me a bit of a headache…there’s no air” the smile on his face was adorable as he threw snowballs down at us and jumped up and down saying “WOOOHOOOOO I got to throw a snowball in July.”

After a painful descent and a total of a 10 hour hike (about 3-4 hours more than we thought it would take)  we made our way down the mountain completely exhausted, sore and proud.  We got ourselves to the car and made the drive home hopeful to get back in time to enjoy that beer we thought we’d be having at 3pm.  By 8pm we were all exhausted and in bed slumbering away not having the beer to celebrate because the thought of lifting one more thing was too much. So away we slept.

I found out later that about 15,000 people attempt to climb the summit of Pikes Peak and not everyone makes it. Not too shabby for a days work.  I also found out this was rated a “moderate hike” hahahahahahahahaha what is their rating system?  I can only imagine what some of the hikes are out there.

To sum it all up. I loved it. It was well worth it to do. The views on the hike are something you can only see by hiking it.  It is a sense of accomplishment and something I hope to do again some day.

I climbed to the top of Pikes Peak and all I got was this blister:

If you are ever in the Colorado Springs area I’d say you have to go to Pikes Peak however you get there you just have to check it out.

 Well we ended our time in Vallecito and headed out on the road again.  Our destination is Yoder, CO to visit my brother Tim for a couple of weeks.  We’ve been here since July 5th.  However we’ve been super busy getting cleaned up around the trailer from road travel and getting JoeJoe ready to head out to California where he will stay with Chris’s mom for 2 weeks.   We had to go to Denver the other day and ship him out.  We are utilizing our time to get the satellite internet ready for when we head out again and get stocked up again.

Chris and I went to hike Pikes Peak which is a massive mountain climb but when we got there it was a little packed at the base and the parking situation was ridiculous. We were later in the morning in getting there so we turned back and decided to try again next week and get there at about 5:30 am so we can park at the base and get further up the mountain. I’m not sure if we’ll hike to the peak the first time since we need to plan the entire day to do that hike. When you hike Pikes Peak you have to bring rain gear because you climb so high in altitude that the mountain will often have afternoon storms at the top.  So we’ll see how it goes.  When we turned around from Pikes Peak we decided to hit the Garden of the Gods which is in the same area so we got our hike in! Wooooohoooooo! 

Here are the pictures from the drive which was another all day trip to get to our spot.  Also there are pictures of the Garden of the Gods which is beautiful!

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Being here camping at the lake I had hoped for a storm to come through.  I love summer storms.  I told Honey “I hope we get one day of rainy stormy weather.”  Well I got my wish.

When a storm comes through this area you can hear it way before it actually hits you.  It is a fantastic way to get hit with a storm.  You hear the trees moving back and forth because they are so tall and thin they move with any sort of wind.  The trees in the mountains give the great warning of a storm on its way.  It takes about 3 or 4 minutes before it hits.  The whooshing gets louder and louder as it gets closer and you get almost a scared yet thrilling feeling deep in your gut knowing mother nature is about to hit.

The other day this sort of storm was coming in only with this particular storm there was a new sound besides the wind.  We could tell by the sound it was making that we were going to get hit and get hit within a few minutes.  We watched the trees in the distance moving as if there were a monster coming through.  I’m pretty sure this is the spot where they came up with the smoke monster in LOST. J

So as this storm is approaching we know what’s coming so we start moving all of our chairs and anything that can’t get wet under the trailer and under the awning. Sure enough we start to feel the drops and a rush of wind and sideways rain hits us.  We run into the trailer all three of us laughing at the thrill of the warm rain hitting so rapidly and exactly as we expected.  Luckily it was in the early evening so we turned on some lights, got our books out and read with the windows open so we could listen to the rain. 

About the time we decided to go to bed the rain let up and it was just perfectly cool outside with the smell of light mud in the air. With smiles on our faces we crawl into bed ready for a solid night’s sleep. It didn’t take long to fall into a peaceful deep slumber full of happy dreams of warm rains, beautiful bike rides and barbecues.

I don’t remember exactly where I was in my dreams but I do remember a sudden CRACKBAMBOOMKABLAM…my eyes pop open and I say what the f@*k was that and I have the sudden urge to pee and not like the gotta go pee in the middle of the night but the I am going to pee my pants.  Honey says “that was lightening that just hit down next to us” Holy bejeweled that was loud. I am shaking and don’t want to get out of bed to handle my pee business.  I want to stay in the protection of my blankets.  I have never had lightening strike so close nor did I even fathom how loud it would be.

Once I find my brave bone I get up to pee.  Honey is laughing because I’m still shaking with the dogs from the storm.  So I get up and run as fast as I can across the trailer to the safety of the bathroom because apparently if I move fast enough we won’t get hit with lightening. J  I finish my business and suck in a deep breath and run back to the bedroom. Ah hah…..my quickness kept us from getting hit. 

As I climb into the safety of my blankets I am immediately feeling better. My blankets will keep the lightening from hitting us just like they kept the monster from eating me when I was 5.  Lay as far under as you can, maintain your breathing, keep that heart from pounding so loud and do not under any circumstances let your feet dangle or they will get eaten from the monster under the bed. (You know you all do that too…I wasn’t the only kid with a monster that wanted to eat my feet)

So as I lay in the safety of my blankets I listen to the bustling of the campground. There’s a child crying (someone get that kid some blankets) there are men hunting around to figure out what’s going on, car doors slam as some people in tents move to the safety of their cars and one group left altogether.  I begin to relax with Sockie pop shaking under my feet and I fall back to sleep.

The next morning the camp is moving early as people are checking out the storm and wondering exactly where or who got hit.  The campground just below us had a fully collapsed tent and had one completely flooded tent and they weren’t looking very rested.  Most campers were putting wet clothing and items out to dry in the shining sun. 

Everyone is happy to be back to camping and having the sun out.  Me? I’m happy to have had my storm and even happier to see the morning sun.  But mostly I am most happy that not only did I keep myself safe with my blankets but my blanket powers have expanded to keeping my family safe.  What? We didn’t get hit with lightening did we?! 

Here are more pictures of our camping trip….I am racing against a dying battery and limited internet.  I didn’t get the chance to proof the captions…if you see any errors……let me know.  We are having a ton of fun on the lake!

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