Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Hiking the Incline

(As an introduction to The Incline, I'm borrowing the following  text from this website) 
"There is a vertical scar on a hill behind Manitou Springs. The trees part in a skinny stripe littered with aged railroad ties that climb steeply to the top of this small mountain. A railroad line was constructed on this slope in 1907 to aid in construction of a hydroelectric plant, and later used to take visitors to an overlook of the town. Today, these are the proving grounds. If your competitive fire burns white hot, the Incline beckons. It will torment and punish you, then stoke that fire to come back for more."
Ummm...maybe not so much the last part of that sentence. But climb the Incline I did. It is not quite a mile in distance (easy, you'd think, right?) but has a vertical climb of just over 2000 feet
(6530'-8550'). I'm a work in progress when it comes to physical fitness. I'm not a novice hiker. And this was a serious challenge! It did indeed torment and punish. The closer I got to the top, the more difficult it became. Because of the decrease in oxygen level as the altitude increased, it was literally one step at a time. But it was also exhilarating to reach the top and feel the satisfaction of accomplishing something so difficult.
 The beginning of the trail, made entirely of railroad ties. If you look closely, you can see the line that goes up through the trees. That is The Incline trail.

A few feet from the top. You can see just how high we climbed.

Alicia, Ashley, Heidi, Starr, Lisa, Jennifer
We did it!!!


Sunday, June 3, 2012

First Camping Trip

Jacob spent many months talking about camping, reading stories about camping trips, playing pretend in his little indoor tent, and asking, "When can we go camping??" The little man got his wish in early June when he and Daddy participated in the church-sponsored father & son campout. Though the GPS sent them on a wild goose chase and they almost didn't find the campground, and the car just about ran out of gas on the way there, father and son had a wonderful experience. After all, when you're almost four years old, what could be better than dinner AND breakfast at a picnic table, eating roasted marshmallows, staying up way too late, and sleeping in a sleeping bag in a tent because your CAMPING??? Absolutely nothing.