{"id":2317,"date":"2019-09-23T20:28:16","date_gmt":"2019-09-24T00:28:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/?p=2317"},"modified":"2025-09-08T09:11:39","modified_gmt":"2025-09-08T13:11:39","slug":"the-incline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/the-incline\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Springs and the Manitou Incline"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Recently, we had the opportunity to travel to Colorado Springs \u2013 a friend was getting married.  We couldn\u2019t make the wedding date, so we decided to visit separately, and tack on a few days of hiking \u2013 weather permitting and all.
 
There are those who might argue that hiking the 14ers is the pinnacle of hiking (Dad joke!) here in the states \u2013 whether you believe that or not,  we don\u2019t want to debate \u2013 we had two glorious days of hiking with some fantastic scenery!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

We had decided on a cute AirBnB in Manitou Springs \u2013 just outside Colorado Springs \u2013 home to the Pikes Peak Cog Railway.\u00a0 \u00a0A famous attraction in Manitou Springs is\u00a0the Manitou Incline<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 an old rail bed built in the early 1900s for a funicular which serviced the water tank facilities for Manitou and Colorado Springs.\u00a0 \u00a0A rock slide in 1990 brought about the final conversion of the rail bed into a cardio-lovers delight \u2013 2768 steps, beginning at 6500\u2032 to an elevation of 8590\u2032 over .88 miles \u2013 straight up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It may not look like anything much, at least at the start, but begin to get going, and the steepness and relentlessness of the stairs sets in.  Definitely not an easy climb and there are warnings at the base to attest to that!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

But as with most hiking, often the rewards are great \u2013 the view from the top of the incline was spectacular!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

And then, of course, once you\u2019re at the top, you still have to go down.  Fortunately (or maybe by design), the Incline is connected to a lower section of the Barr Trail \u2013 a trail which stretches from the Cog Railway\/Incline trailhead to the Pikes Peak summit.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

For us, regulars to the White Mountains in New Hampshire \u2013 where boulders are common place \u2013 the Barr Trail was easy, mainly loose gravel and a gradual steady downhill pace \u2013 and switchbacks!  Who knew!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Round trip \u2013 roughly 2-1\/2 hours \u2013 an hour and change up the incline, and a similar pace on the way down.  Great way to get in some good cardio and with some amazing views in the process!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Crag\u2019s Trail to Devils Playground<\/strong>\u0016<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We just couldn\u2019t pass up the amazing weather \u2013 upper 70\u2019s and blazing sunshine in Manitou. For the late September timeframe, it was beautiful! So, we set our sites on something a bit more ambitious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019d started looking at Pike\u2019s Peak, yea, THAT Pike\u2019s Peak \u2013 a 14er. We found a trailhead on the northwest slope of Pikes Peak \u2013 the Crags Campground trailhead \u2013 which started at an elevation of roughly 10,000\u2032. Even with that, Pike\u2019s Peak summit is 14,115 \u2013 4,000 feet of elevation change is a challenge \u2013 even without the altitude (remember that?).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Undaunted, we headed out with good ambitions and intentions, but in hindsight, were overly ambitious for several reasons. We\u2019d only arrived in the \u201chigh country\u201d (over 6000\u2032) on Wednesday evening \u2013 and by Friday, were still only two days into any sort of acclimation to the altitude. Both of us were feeling mild-symptoms of altitude \u2013 mild headaches and some sleeplessness. And remembering the 3 degrees per thousand feet rule, we got to the trailhead and the ambient temperature was only 42 degrees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By our standards, the trail was easy \u2013 with good footing and no boulders \u2013 though with a steady elevation gain.   As we ascended, the wind gradually picked up, that chilling up-slope wind.   By the time we reached tree-line \u2013 about 11,500 feet \u2013 wind speeds were steadily about 50mph.  Reports from the few hikers who were descending suggested gusts were higher on the plateau leading to Devil\u2019s Playground as the Crag\u2019s trail reaches the Pike\u2019s Peak road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We pressed on, but more slowing, both the wind speed and altitude requiring more frequent stops. When we crested the false summit, we had clear views of the summit \u2013 still far in the distance!<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
View from the false summit, toward Pike\u2019s Peak, with Devil\u2019s playground off to the left<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n
\n
\"\"
Cresting the false summit on the Crag\u2019s trail, looking North-westward \u2013 the \u2018backside\u2019 of the front range.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

The visibility was amazing \u2013 we\u2019d picked a great day \u2013 but the wind was relentless, and so it was, by 11:30 and shortly after reaching the false summit, we decided to descend following the path to lower altitudes, somewhat cold (because of poor clothing choices) and definitely winded by the altitude and the gale-force wind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recently, we had the opportunity to travel to Colorado Springs \u2013 a friend was getting married.  We couldn\u2019t make the wedding date, so we decided to visit separately, and tack on a few days of hiking \u2013 weather permitting and all. There are those who might argue that hiking the 14ers is the pinnacle of hiking (Dad joke!) here in the states \u2013 whether you believe that or not,  we don\u2019t want to debate \u2013 we had two glorious days ofRead More →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":4995,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"category-hiking.php","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colorado-springs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2317"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4996,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2317\/revisions\/4996"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4995"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2317"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2317"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterdittman.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2317"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}