After driving April home to pueblo after school ended, I decided to drive back the 'long way home', which included at three day trip to Pikes Peak, and a two day trip to Mt. Democrat. I parked the car above the train station in Manitou Springs at 7,500'.

It was late morning when I left the car. I was hoping to climb the couliors on the north face of the summit, so I had quite a bit of gear with me. I was not sure what to expect, so I also had snowshoes. Needless to say, I got plenty of strange looks leaving the hot trailhead with so much gear.

The Barr trail relentlessly switchbacks up the valley from the train station for quite a long time. It was very hot, and my feet were absolutely swimming in my winter boots. I slowly progressed further up the trail, which was mildly crowded. I was surprised to see some people coming down from the summit, including a teenager from Texas. I have trouble believing people can just show up at the trailhead, and hike the 26 mile round trip.

After a few hours, I had climbed out of the valley, and had started the long, flatter, approach to Barr Camp. I made Barr camp after about 5 hours of hiking, and setup camp a ways south of the camp itself. I asked at camp about conditions in the 'bottomless pit', and they said there was no snow. Man, I was sure bummed I brought those snowshoes all the way up.

After a quiet, warm night, I cooked up some oatmeal, and since I did not have any hand food for lunch, I cooked up some noodles and sealed them in my cookware to eat for lunch. With a much lighter pack, I started up the trail.

I soon found myself nearing timberline, with many scraggly bristlecone pines surrounding me. When I reached the hut at timeberline, I chose to head directly up the gully, rather than stick to the trail. On the ascent, I ascended directly to the summit up the gully, including some somewhat exciting steep rock near the top.

After peeking my head above the last of the steep rock, I was greeted with the sight of the summit house. I ventured inside to find a nice place to sit. It was a little strange, after 24 hours solo, walking into the trinket shop at 8am. The first train had not yet arrived, and it was very quiet. I sat down, and for a while I debated weather or not it was OK to buy a hot chocolate. I figured I deserved it, since I had to eat cold, congealed noodles for lunch.

The only other 'customer' at the summit was a guy who said it was his 200th or so ascent of Pikes. He lived in Manitou Springs, and climbed the Barr Trail frequently. He was discussing his ascents with another who worked at the summit house, and sometimes would hike to work. Pretty amazing.

To add some contrast to this dicussion, the train arrived, and suddenly the summit house was completely filled with tourists, buzzing around buying trinkets and french fries. Some old people sat down next to me, and after seeing all my gear, asked where I had come from. I said I had walked up from the train station the day before, and the replied baffled "You walked all the way up here?"

I ventured outside for a bit, which now seemed even colder compared to the warmth of the summit house. I wandered across Pikes broad summit to look down the couliors on the north side, and indeed, there was barely any snow at all. I chuckled a bit at all the tourists who came out of the summit house, only to find it far too cold for their taste, and turn back about ten feet later.

I headed off back to camp, spent the night, and hiked out the next day. I was glad to have done such a big trip, but was a bit disappointed with the snow conditions. Fortunately at Mt. Democrat in the 10 mile range, snow conditions were much better.