The Incline

This was the day that I had been preparing myself (only mentally) for the last 4 weeks.  The day that I conquered The Incline.  I figured if my friend could do it at 34 weeks pregnant, then I was good to go.  I guess I wasn't realizing that she is the most fit person I have ever met.  She does a 13 mile run every week "just to keep in shape."  I don't think that I could run for more than 2 miles without losing consciousness.  So my thought that I was good to go were a little... um... naive.

Anyways!  Aaron and Alison, our amazing mountaineer friends who lead us on our last camping adventure, made the trip down to Colorado Springs.  We started the morning off by, of course, gorging ourselves with huge 10 inch maple bars and coffee.  Carb loading duh!

We waddled over to the Garden of the Gods and had a good time showing the Rogstad's the park.  Aaron was pointing at various rock structures telling us that he could scale them all with an arm tied behind his back.  He was drooling looking at the other climbers, wishing that he could be up there.  Maybe next week buddy.  Today, I have to heave myself up 2,000 feet!

Hmm, comforting

Oh and there was a small, athletic, Brazilian man at the beginning of the trail who told us that the trail is still illegal to go up.  Awesome.

About 1/8 of the way up the hill. Did I mention that it is 2,000 feet elevation gain in just less that 1 mile.

Looking down.  This is just at the beginning. Rather steep

About 3/4 of the way up.  I was feeling rather dizzy and fatigued.  Alison said at one point while we were resting, "I am gonna keep heading up cause I feel better when I keep moving."  Uhh, okay crazy lady.  I am gonna sit here for at least 5 minutes and attempt to get my heart rate beneath 100. Oh yeah and that Brazilian man, he ran past me 10 minutes earlier. Yes, ran.

This is almost at the top.  It started to rain, which was rather refreshing.  Little did we know that we were about to be pounded by hail.

About 20 steps from the top, the hail started.  So while we were super happy that we made it, we also were starting to get a little worried that we were going to be struck off the side of the mountain by lighting.  Unfortunately, the visibility was limited by this time and it was tough to enjoy the view.  But it was an amazing one!

 This tree wasn't really doing much for us as far as protection goes. 

We were standing there for about 3 minutes and figuring that the storm wasn't going to let up, so we decided to make a run for it back down the Barr trail.  This is about a 3 mile winding trail down the mountain.  The hail was pelting us and each time we would stop under a tree for a breather, we would scrape the ice off of our shoulders.  Eventually we had dropped in elevation enough that it turned to rain.  The thunder and lighting made it pretty interesting too.  There is a statistic somewhere that says that Colorado is #2 in lighting strike deaths.  I believe that Alison yelled that to me as we were about 1/2 way down the Barr trail. Great timing :) 

What a fun day though.  I am glad we have a good story to tell about our first time doing the Incline.   Thank you good friends for being so encouraging when my lazy bones didn't want to get up the mountain.