First, you gotta get there! We left Friday afternoon and made it to Amarillo, Saturday found us on the road to Colorado Springs. The first order of business was to scout the parking situation. There is a parking lot at the trailhead of Barr Trail but it fills up WAY early in the morning. As it turns out, since we already had Cog Train tickets (Yes, we rode the train down – and our bodies thanked us.) we were able to get a parking pass to use their parking lot. It was kinda strange to look at the skyline, seeing the tallest mountain and realizing that you were going to walk up it!
So, Sunday morning at the crack of dawn we head out. By the way, Holiday Inn Express will do a “brown-bag” breakfast for you if you are leaving before the regular posted breakfast time. Nothing beats a cinnamon roll to get your exercise started! Car parked, one last restroom stop and we hit the trail. We have the essentials for the trip in our backpacks. Food (Cliff Bars, Medifast Bars), energy aides (Gatoraide G2 mix, GU Chomps), a sleeping bag, a change of clothes, and rain gear. Oh yeah, and my iPad. You didn’t think I would go anywhere without did you? Crazy talk! In my defense it is an iPad2 – lighter than the original.
Barr Trail is a well-marked trail, mostly smooth the first part with about 8 million switchbacks winding up the mountain. The first part of the trail was really pretty busy. Two weeks after our climb they will do the Pike’s Peak Marathon. Yep, people are going to run up and then back down the mountain. Makes you feel somewhat inadequate. There were lots of folks running up and lots of folks running down. Many of them had walked up the “Incline”, an evil looking set of wooden steps going straight up the mountain, and would then come down the trail. Wow, and people thought we were crazy! Excitement was high, energy was good, the 26 pound pack was a lot less weight than I had carried around with me before!
We did see some interesting things on the trail. There are some weird folks that walk up/down mountains (I’d like to think that they felt the same about us!). We saw the search and rescue folks heading down to take care of someone. They were carrying lot’s of stuff and moving fast. I thought that maybe they had heard about me and were coming to check on me but they went right past. This was encouraging! Lot’s of “scenery stops” (waiting to catch your breath!), stops to grab a Cliff Bar or some GU Chomps, to let someone pass. We trudged on. You would visit some with the folks heading up the trail. We got some water out for a guy that his pack was so full he looked like the kid on “A Christmas Story” that couldn’t get up because he had so much clothes on. Turns out he was heading to Barr Camp and we saw him and his sons there. There was an interesting variety of footwear – the standard hiking boots, running shoes, five-toes, and one pair of flip-flops. The most bizarre site of the day was the unicyclist. Yep, you read that right, a unicycle. He was coming down the trail like it was no big deal. We did see the Search & Rescue Team heading down to check on someone. I was happy that they didn’t stop and check me, I guess I wasn’t looking that bad! Every now and then you’d get a brief level spot on the trail and occasionally even a downhill! Joann did not like the downhill as she knew that every step downhill meant you had to go back uphill sooner or later. I prefer the really big steps up, it’s all about gaining elevation. We had 8000’ of uphill, the big steps just got me closer to the top! On the second day we had lots of “John steps”. We kept going, step after step. Somewhere on the trail we met Scott and his dog Chaos. Scott had run a Triathlon the day before and was now hiking up Pike’s Peak. What a man! As it turns out, Scott & Chaos were the only people that we actually passed (overtook) on the trail. Of course it was because he was filtering water for Chaos! Andy & Kim had left us in their dust and had gone ahead somewhere in there. We kept walking. I tried some music, I started singing “Everlasting God”, I didn’t have enough breath for it so Joann and I traded phrases back and forth. I’d sing a phrase and then she’d sing a phrase. The words fit well for how we felt. You don’t really know where you are on the lower part of the trail, you know that you’ve been walking for a long time and you should be close to the camp but you’re not sure until you get there. We came up an incline and heard voices, then we saw the camp! It was a great moment, we’d made it half way up the mountain and were still alive! I love Barr Camp!
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Camp Life
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