Admittedly, my adventure stories tend to be painfully long-winded. I’m trying to use alternate multimedia options this time around in order to cut through my fluff and failed attempts at humor. I was hoping to post a few pictures along with the story, but my requests for access to the photos taken have been perpetually unfulfilled.
Yeti emailed me in the middle of the week asking if I would want to attempt an ultralight off-trail jam up Pikes Peak. I had sworn off any additional ascents of Pikes Peak via the Barr Trail Hiker Interstate after my last one, two years ago, but Yeti was offering an alternate route so I took the bait. We planned to break out on Friday afternoon after work and return about 24 hours later. I’m all for any adventure that gets me above treeline on foot and still gives me a day to relax at home before returning to work on Monday, so we gave each other the virtual nod and started packing. After some skillful persuasion of (lying to) my employer to sneak out of work two hours early I was on my way to Green Mountain Falls for a late-day start.
This is a map of the trek we took. You will find a similar one on the Upadowna page created by Yeti. Along the way we talked about mapping adventures like this online, so please pardon the redundancy of both of us having a map posted. Personally, I find the full sized version a little more user-friendly, but you get the same details off of either version.
Getting Started
It was hot in Denver, hot in Colorado Springs, and no better by the time I got to GMF so first things first; a round of PBRs while we reviewed our proposed route on the three maps we took with us; the 7.5 minute USGS quads for Woodland Park and Pikes Peak I grabbed from the Map Store, and a 1:75,000 map of the Pikes Peak region owned by Yeti. After the cans were crushed we hit the trailhead and started uphill at exactly 4pm. Within the first 20 minutes we both agreed that due to the heat we were both glad we opted to pack light.
GMF to South Catamount
As we passed through the Garden of Eden Yeti made me promise that in the event of a mountain lion or bear attack either of us would stay and battle it out beside the other until the bitter end. I thought this was a given, but I guess Yeti doesn’t trust me.
Catamount to Glen Cove
About one mile past South Catamount the forest opened up into a meadow where we found a group of four ladies and two dogs who had packed in from the reservoir along the same line that we followed. They were a friendly bunch so we stopped and visited for a moment. After departing again we crossed a marsh on a man-made dirt dam and began a 2.5 mile, 2000 vertical foot, forested ascent to Glen Cove following game trails and a creek. Bears had marked up hundreds of trees in the area. I started wondering if Yeti would really hold me to that promise.
By 8:30pm I was running on empty but I pushed it till 9. There was barely any daylight left for us to set up a quick tarp shelter so we were really under the wire, but we did make it to Glen Cove as we had planned. My sense of accomplishment was completely overshadowed by the physically ill feeling I had from my lack of nourishment. One bag of noodles later I was good to go.
Overnight at GC
I was really comfortable but I didn’t sleep all that well. I was like an overstimulated child, I think. There was an occasional flicker of cloud-to-cloud lightning accompanied by a distant rumble of thunder, and a few times we got the click-click-click of just a little sleet falling on us. Yeti and I stayed up and b.s-ed for a little while until he fell asleep mid-sentence. Poor little guy was plumb tuckered out.
We woke up to thunderous engines screaming up the highway. These were no commuter vehicles. We could see activity on the switchback directly above our campsite; Pikes Peak Hill Climbers were taking practice runs up the road. We watched what we could while we had breakfast.
Glen Cove to the Peak
We departed camp and did a 1000′ tundra ascent to get up to Devil’s Playground. I should have thought to measure the incline we were on but there was so much happening at once. I bet it was a 35 degree slope. We saw some grazing deer up there but mostly we kept looking back down at the highway, watching the racers tear past Glen Cove and drift the corner afterward. I just bought a new Impreza last week. It made me want to blow this trip off and go try those corners for myself.
At Devil’s Playground we joined a trail to get us the rest of the way to the top. The farther we went the less obvious the trail was and the larger the cairns became. By 11am the clouds had started rolling in on us, a little earlier than expected. We probably summited at exactly the right time; there was one cloud forming and boiling, filling up Bottomless Pit, and we had a clear, albeit brief, view of the tops of the overcast skies down in Colorado Springs. It was exactly what I wanted to see when I got there.
Pikes Peak Summit
The Pikes Peak Summit House features a wide variety of keychains, sweatshirts, and other overpriced, touristy crap. The real excitement is in the free donuts. I’m not sure where Yeti found that coupon, but I treated that donut like “my precious” even though Mr Buzzkill at the next table over just “couldn’t see how anyone could eat a sugary donut after climbing the Peak.”
Summit to Timberline A-Frame
The clouds had rolled in and started to form a little precipitation as we started down the mountain right around 12:15pm. We got waves of pea-sized hail almost the whole time on our way down to the A-frame. When there wasn’t hail there was dense fog. Aside from the occasional hailstone to the back of the ear or the nipple, it was fun. There was a steady rainy drizzle by the time we got to the A-frame so we took a break to read the graffiti in the old building. After a 30 minute break we topped off the water and hit the trail again. That is the last time we would stop until Manitou.
Timberline to Barr Camp
The forest kept any more precipitation at bay for this part of the trail, but the fog was still there. We weren’t getting the grand views through here, but the fog through the forest was very picturesque. When we got to Barr Camp we just kept on truckin’.
Barr Camp to Manitou
Zzzzzz, zzzzz
Finish Line
We were trying not to think about it on our way down, but we both had our mouths set on the Loop (corner of Manitou Ave. and Ruxton Ave.) for our final stop. Sadly, when we got there at 5pm the wait for a table was around 45 minutes and we were in no mood to linger. We called our shuttle to come get us and haul us up to Pine Gables for a pitcher and a pie.
Please ignore my pessimism of the lower Barr Trail. Overall I was very happy with our journey. If I were to alter anything at all about the way we approached the mission, I would have started around 3pm rather than 4 so we would have had a little buffer time when we got to camp, and so we weren’t walking through bear terrain right at dusk. Also, I would have printed out more donut coupons.
Sounds like a cool route for Pikes Peak. I’ve only done Barr Trail in the winter for the last several years. By the way the correct spelling is cairn.
Shoulda taken the trail from Barr Camp over to the cog railway and followed the tracks down. And yunz guys shoulda called me for PBR’s at Kinfolk’s afterwards.