Saturday, July 16, 2016

Climbing the Manitou Incline

Crystal planned something special for our visit to Colorado, a hiking trip up the Manitou Incline. This was a hike up railway ties straight up the side of a mountain! It was 2000 feet of straight up!

I was proud of Crystal for suggesting it, and didn't want to admit it might be daunting for Ed and me!

But when we stood at the beginning of the trail and looked up, we were a little nervous about whether we could actually do it or not!

We stopped frequently for drinks and to rest up, as it was an exhausting climb!

The view was beautiful looking back as we started to gain altitude.

About 2/3 of the way up, there was a bench and a turnaround point, just in case you wanted to go back down on the switchback trail. We decided to eat some trail mix and keep on going.

After 2 1/2 hours we finally reached the summit! We were so proud and so tired! Amazingly, we only got 3000 Fitbit steps out of it! But we did get 200 flights of stairs!

The trail down was gradual and full of switchbacks. While it was not too bad, it took another hour and a half!

By 3 p.m. we were ready for lunch at Dickey's Barbeque Pit, where we really enjoyed relaxing and talking about our triumph! We were so proud of ourselves, but two of us have vowed never to do that again!

If you want to try the climb, see:
 http://www.manitouincline.com/


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