Glory Daze 1 - Mountaini 0

[GloryDaze]

So my wife and I headed out to Denver over Labor Day weekend. I visited there when I was a child but didn't remember too much about the area. We had one mission- Summit Pike's Peak!

Here is the link to some of the pics if you` are interested:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/glorydaze/sets/72157624901620798/

I know, I know- with all the fishing out there why in the hell would I want to try anything like this? Honestly, I'm really not sure but something was pulling me to hike this mountain.

We decided to hike the Barr Trail- the trailhead is right next to the Cog railroad at approximately 6,800 ft of elevation. The summit is a mere 13 miles away at over 14,100 ft of elevation. Keep in mind, the longest hike or walk for that matter I have ever accomplished was to Hawksbill Crag by the Buffalo (3 miles round trip). Also, adding to the "oh dung" factor- my wife has ran 6 marathons!

We began our hike at 4:30 am in the pitch black. There is something very exciting about hiking in the Rocky Mountains with nobody around but your wife and a headlamp for light. It was extremely quiet for the first 2 hours in the dark. I found myself wondering if a mountain lion happened to watch us go by. By 8am, we were almost half way up the mountain so we stopped at Barr camp, had some coffee filtered some water out of the stream and headed for the next 7 miles of which 4 were above the tree line-

Once we left the Aspens behind us the air started to thin and the wind and cold got worse. However, at this point the scenery was absolutely amazing! I could see to crystal clear blue mountain lakes as I trekked up the hill. As I approached 12,000 ft I could hardly take more than 20 steps without stopping to catch my breath- this is about the time I began asking myself, why hike Pikes Peak when I could be floating down an Ozark Stream??

The problem with this hike is, once you committ to the summit, it's either make it or hike back down 13 miles to the car. There is no road or escape route if you get sick, injured or just flat out run out of gas. Anyway, I finally made it to less than a mile to go and just swore I was going to die before the top. I was dizzy, nauseus and exhausted but finally made the summit! I never understood the joy a marathon runner gets when they cross the finish line until now- what an unbelievable feeling to know you hiked a freaking mountain!!

So the entire hike took me 9 hours- 3.5 to the halfway spot and 5.5 hrs to bring it on home (man it's hard to breathe up there.