As I was checking off the 14ers I realized that I wanted to do Pikes Peak this year. I wanted to do it by the long way. I thought it would be so cool to see all of Colorado‘s life zones in one hike! I was thinking about hiking up and taking the train down, but my boss talked me into doing the whole 26 miles round trip in one day. He said that if I ate bananas, brought tennis shoes and ibuprofen, I‘d be fine. I was hooked, and I was looking forward to this trip all season. I even spurned the idea of spreading the 26 miles into 2 days by staying at Barr Camp, because I wanted to set an endurance standard for myself to see what my body could do. The trip was my only solo 14er of the year; understandably few of my friends wanted to attempt 26 miles.
So on Saturday, October 6, I woke up at 2:30 a.m. in Golden. I was in the car by 3:00, and I drove to Manitou Springs, arriving at the trailhead at about 4:30. It was very windy when I arrived, with balmy temperature of 67 degrees--quite warm for that time of the morning. As I put on my boots and quickly gathered my gear, I was engulfed in a dust storm. I turned on my NOAA weather radio and heard that 55 mph winds were forecast above 11,000 ft. I immediately realized that I might be in for a very interesting day on the mountain.
At 4:45 I locked my car and marched up the hill, stopping to take a flash picture of the Barr Trail sign. Hurriedly I paced up the trail, switchback after switchback in my headlamp, the wind gusts making eerie sounds of blowing leaves. The first people I met were two guys resting. One said that he thought he had the flu and wasn‘t feeling well, but he didn‘t want to miss out on the trip. I told him that with the forecasted cold front and the exertion of the trip, that the summit wasn‘t worth it today if he wasn‘t well. I wished him well and moved on.
At 5:45 I found myself at the first trail junction near the head of the Incline. My GPS unit said 8600 feet. I had covered 3 miles and 2000 feet of elevation gain in an hour! Just before 7:00 the sun rose; Pikes Peak was glowing a beautiful red, and I was at almost 10,000 ft. It was getting chilly, so I stopped to put on a layer. I had covered another 3.5 miles, so I was halfway up the mountain already! The only other person I saw was a guy named Lynn, who said that he was one of the "usual suspects" who shows up weekly for breakfast at Barr Camp. A few minutes later I hiked past Barr Camp, figuring that it would be a delightful place to stop in the afternoon.
Onward I marched up to treeline. My leg muscles started hurting, and I had to slow my pace slightly. I enjoyed the bristlecone pine forest and all the interesting boulders and rock formations near treeline. I kept going; the trail became rockier but was ever so gentle. Before long I reached the 16 Golden Stairs, which are really 32 short switchbacks. The rockiness of the mountain reminded me of Long‘s Peak. Down below I could see a fire burning in Colorado Springs, and the smoke being blown by the wind. But on the east side of the mountain, the wind wasn‘t too bad.
I summitted at 10:40--just 5 minutes shy of 6 hours from when I left the car. I was greeted by the sights of the cog train and lots of tourists. I walked around the cold, windblown summit taking pictures and looking at the view in my binoculars, and deflecting comments from tourists who pointed out the obvious, "So I take it that you hiked up..."
It was bitterly cold on the summit and I had to put on layers. There were some clouds over the Sangre de Cristos and the Sawatch Range, and it looked like it was snowing beyond to the west. Some people that hiked up from the west said that they were buffeted by 70 mph winds the whole way up.
The view was spectacular. I could see from the Spanish Peaks to the Sangre de Cristo Mountains to the Sawatch Range to the Mosquito Range to the Front Range. Long‘s Peak was barely visible through the haze, as was downtown Denver.
Finally, I went inside the gift shop to warm up and have a snack and refill my water bottles. Then I went outside in to a wind-sheltered place to make some phone calls. Before I left I went back inside to get some fudge and a donut. Both were simply amazing.
At 1:00 p.m., I started down the mountain. I was immediately greeted by multiple groups of people who had left around 6 a.m. and were just then summitting. The Colorado College Lacrosse team was one group, as was a group of students from the Focus on the Family Institute. All were tired, and few looked prepared for cold, windy conditions, much less a cold front. I must have seen nearly 100 people before the crowds thinned out. Most were hoping to catch the train down; few had pre-purchased tickets. Some were banking on catching the train since they didn‘t have headlamps to walk out in the dark. I was wishing I could help them but knew that I might need my own headlamp later that evening.
At around 3:45, I arrived at Barr Camp, ready for a break. I met the caretakers Neil and Teresa, and they answered all my questions about their place and offered me some animal crackers. The evening‘s guests arrived while I was there. It was a short and very pleasant break. At about 4:30 I put on my tennis shoes for a more comfortable hike down, and I headed out. The sun started to go down behind the mountain, but the temperatures warmed as I descended. The scattered aspen groves were in brilliant, flaming yellow against the surrounding conifers. Before long I was back at the head of the Incline, and I started to see brilliant red oak brush, yucca, and even prickly pear cactus. How often do you see prickly pear cactus on a 14er hike? I arrived back at the car at 7:00 p.m., exhausted but happy. It was a great day!
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