Mount Manitou - We did it!

Last Wednesday was "Date Night" for Tara and I - we decided to have an adventure date and then go out to eat at Noodles Inc. Instead of a movie or just a walk we decided to tackle to Mantiou Incline - it was amazing.

Imagine thousands of steps, 1 mile straight up... 2000+' elevation gain.... average of 40% grade and a high of 68% grade.

Imagine starting at 6574' and climbing to 8585'. Some do it under 15-30 mins, running. Some take 3 hours. There are about 5,000 railroad ties.

If it were a ski slope, it would be a “black” run — that’s how steep it is. And that’s how potentially dangerous it is, said officials for the owners, the Manitou and Pikes Peak Cog Railway. The railroad track was built into the side of a mountain in the shadow of Pikes Peak in the early 1920s. A train carted tourists to the top until a rock slide wiped out a portion of the track in the late 1980s A few years later, the tracks were dismantled, leaving only the railroad ties.

It was about that time when the hikers showed up. And they won’t leave. On any weekend, hundreds of them, if not thousands, walk right by the “No Trespassing” sign as they start their grueling ascent. It is about heart...it is about courage...it is about a personal challenge.

Hiking, running, walking, or crawling up the Incline is tough...nothing easy about it. Sure, it's not Everest...but it's tough. Some people do it daily, some do it once in a lifetime. Tara and I decided to attempt the feat and we kicked butt... well kicked butt in 1.5 hours... next week we do it again!..






This is from the fire last week - really devastated the land.




We DID IT! Ahhh what a grueling trek!





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