DESTINATION Generic 110 Photosets
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| The Incline to Barr Trail Home, CO | |
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| | The Incline to Barr Trail Home, CO | | | |
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The Incline to Barr Trail Home, CO
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| Hiking | 20.94 Miles |
6,330 AEG |
| | Hiking | 20.94 Miles | | | |
| 6,330 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | |  AWESOME DAY!
It started with my wife dropping me off on the highway 24 near the Manitou exit. I visited the Rainbow Falls picnic area on the way down. It would be very nice if it didn't seem to be a teenage hangout as evidenced by all the graffiti.  Then walked through Manitou and up Ruxton to do the Incline.
The plan was to do the incline to see what the hype was about and then find out where the Ring to Peak trail connects and follow it home. I was disappointed to find that it connects at the bottom of the incline and basically follows the 24 all the way to Cascade. Boo! So then I decided to connect to the Barr Trail up to the Barr Camp and find out if there was a trail leading to the Pikes Peak Toll road to connect up to the RTPT there. I packed everything I needed to Summit Pikes Peak if the need arose, but I'll get to that later.
The Incline:
I can't believe there is a club of people that do this thing everyday before work all year round. I'm sure they are in fantastic shape! 2100' AEG in 1 mile of railroad ties. With a false summit. My ego wouldn't let me be passed, but all I heard all the way up was negative exhausted people wondering why they were doing it and the occasional unprepared person puking on the side of the trail. All I could do was tell myself left right left right and look for footing because it is pretty rough in places. In fact, they don't really want people walking down it so the only bail out is .9 miles up where you can catch the Barr trail down. It made me question my fitness even though I have stayed in pretty good shape. I was told by a buddy whose brother got 4th place last year in the Pikes Peak Marathon that Apollo Ohno hopped it on one leg and ran down the Barr trail and then hopped it on the other leg during his training for the Olympics.  That's just Crazy! Even if I did this thing every day I could never find it fun.
Barr Trail to the Barr camp: I made pretty good time from the bottom of the incline to the Barr camp. It's roughly 4,000' elevation gain and the incline takes off about 1.5 miles of the 6 miles. I inquired about the conditions to the summit because there has been 3 rescues in 3 days and a lot of snow and I was supposed to do this on Saturday with a person who is fit, but lacks a lot of hiking experience and planned to take the Cog railway down. They said the trail is covered for the last 4 miles and knee to waist post holing in snow for those 4 miles. I had my spikes, but didn't bring the snowshoes, but I got to the camp so early I considered it. I asked them about trails to the toll road and they said the Elk run is 5 miles and gets close, but is post holing for the last mile. I decided to do this back home.
Barr camp provides bunks for $20 a night has food and water that can be filtered from a spring. FYI
The people manning the Barr camp do not know anything. FYI 
Had I known on my way to my house that I would be post holing roughly 8 miles on and off during the trip home, I would have done the summit and gotten a ride from my wife from the same point she dropped me off when she got off work.  But I would have missed out on the Views! Views! Views! and seeing a completely different side of the mountain in utter Solitude!
I took the Elk Run trail to the 652 to the Oil creek Tunnel trail and from then on until I reached the RTPT to Mt. Esther I'd be lying if I gave you any names. In looking at my gps topo I passed most notably the Devil's Playground. I thought the oil creek Tunnel might get me to the toll road, but it dumped me into a trail that traversed albeit through snow a huge expanse of granite gravel slopes across several peaks. It was at this point that I decided to consult the gps. I looked at Poi's for reference. What I wanted was Crowe Gulch to find RTPT and the Pikes Peak highway. Unfortunately, I could not get the highway to populate. It was 4 miles away through trail less wilderness. Glen Cove picnic area was .68 of a mile away, but on the otherside of one of the Peaks I was looking at. Probably 1.5 miles and some elevation gain on this trail. I knew it had to be close to the toll road, but my fear was that it would be a 5-13 mile walk to Crowe Gulch on the toll road or a hitch hike. I opted for the 4 miles through trail less wilderness and on looking at the track when I loaded it for stats I made the right choice. I did have to navigate several drainages and peaks to finally get to the road. It rained for the last 3 miles, but I didn't mind. I got home at 5:15 for a nice day. Just short of 10 hrs. from the time I started the Incline. It does mean that a summit from my house would be about 30 miles so I think maybe i'll do the Barr trail the first time. About half of the day was spent above 10,000' and a portion of that was above 11,000'. I felt pretty good considering I've only been home for a few days and it takes awhile after spending two weeks at sea level. My elevation gain and miles were just short of what doing the Barr trail would be and I was happy with how early I got home considering how much un tracked knee deep snow traversing I had to do. |
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