The Incline, Colorado Springs

Or at least our ATTEMPT at climbing The Incline ;)

To give you an idea, The Incline is a trail that runs straight up the steepest part of Pikes Peak, and as you climb up the railroad ties (placed like makeshift stairs), the air gets thinner, the sun gets more powerful and at points you practically have to continue on all fours....The slope actually reaches 50 degrees at one point. YIKES!

Doesn't look so bad right?

We were feeling somewhat overzealous when we began and were disheartened when we had to take a break after only 20 minutes.  At least the view was encouraging...

Wanna know my claim to fame for the day?  I was in the LEAD the WHOLE time!!  I was with my hunky-Army-hoss and Taylor-the-personal-trainer, who both work out EVERY day, and lil ol' me (who is not normally physically inclined) was the front runner all the way up!  Will was the most surprised, if that tells you anything.  I love making him proud, even if it was only 'cuz I was in a hurry to get to the top to get it all over with....if you tell him I said that, I will DENY it!! ;)

All of a sudden, we were seeing nasty clouds, so we decided to cut the trip short and take the "bail out", which is halfway up.  If anyone asks, THE ONLY reason we went back to the bailout was the weather we saw coming. Honest. W were still proud we made it as far as we did and SUPER happy that we all made the decision to quit avoid the weather ;)

But don't forget, we still had a 2 mile trip down!  

It was leisurely compared to The Incline, but we were racing that weather, so we were keeping a healthy pace. We were literally getting PELTED with hail as we got in the car and this time I'm NOT exaggerating one bit!! Can you imagine if we had been on the mountain in a hail storm? Sheesh.

  Maybe next time we will make it to the top.  Maybe (not).