We are in Colorado Springs for the week working on a house with pikes peak habitat for humanity, paid for mostly with funds raised by the riders in my group. It has been really cool thus far participating in the building of a house from the early stages, starting with the finishing of the foundation. Today we started framing the house, and hopefully by the end of this week long period it will look pretty much like a finished house on the outside! To all of my donors, thank you so much because a large portion of your contribution is going toward the building of this house.
On July 4th, the first day that we were in Colorado Springs, we had the day off to explore. A group of about 13 of us decided to hike the Barr trail 13 miles to the top of pikes peak. Because Colorado Springs has almost daily thunderstorms on summer afternoons, we had to get started by 5am to make sure that we got off of the mountain in plenty of time. Because it would have been logistically difficult to get dropped off that early at the base of the mountain, we got dropped off at 10 on the night of the third and camped (maybe illegally) at the trailhead crammed into a tent meant for around 8 people, then stashed our tents and sleeping bags in the woods and got going in the morning. At about 9 am we arrived at Barr camp half way up the trail, which turned out to be one of the coolest places that I have ever been. It is a wooden cabin with small shelters positioned around it that is maintained by an awesome couple that has been living there year round for the past seven years. They operate it with a nonprofit organization selling snacks and drinks very cheaply to hikers and putting up guests that choose to stay over night. After about 45 minutes of r and r at Barr camp we continued on our way up the mountain. About three miles past Barr camp we came to the tree line, where gradually the trees became sparse and then nonexistent. This was really cool to me, especially because this is the first time that I have ever been at any sort of altitude or seen a tree line. Also around tree line, we all started to get a little bit loopy from both the lack of sleep ad the lack of oxygen. The last three and a half miles were as difficult as they were beautiful, and they confirmed the notion that the climb is always worth the view and the descent. After we got to the top, we took some pictures and put on some warm clothes because it was around 30 degrees cooler at the top. After a while, the afternoon storms began to roll in, so we decided to try to hitch hike to the bottom. Luckily, the first people that we asked had room for six of us, and gave us a ride back to the trailhead in manitou springs where we had lunch and waited for the van. It was one of the best days I remember having in a really long time! I will post again soon when I have access to a computer with more details, but tho is it for now. You're welcome Austin!
