The Incline!!

There used to be a cog railway that went half way up Pikes Peak (a 14,000+ beaut in Colorado Springs). It retired, the rails were removed, but the ties remained. The incline is now a stairway straight up the side of a mountain. It is about 0.8 miles long. Here you can see the base to the first false summit. (That means there's more straight up beyond that). "No Trespassing", yet they upkeep the rails, have a paid parking lot at the base, and 50,000 people a year trek up this zipline. I think they need to take the sign down. The rails were a little snowy and icy, but the weather was great! My mom basically left me in the dust. This is at the top of the false summit. There's still about that much to go...except you're already so tired that it looks so much steeper and longer.View from the TOP!!
Victory pictures!!!My mom and I did this in 1 hour and 9 minutes (minus a detour to the side of the trail for me). Can you imagine taking 69 minutes to do something that takes 6 minutes and 9 seconds on flat terrain?? This was a beast! But it was so awesome!! We then trekked down a trail that was 2.5 miles to the parking lot. That was it's own little adventure due to the snow and ice! But we all survived and had a great time!!! I can now consider myself a real Coloradan.