Hi FitFeat friends!

It’s the weekend!  Hope that you have lots of fun FIT things planned!  We are at the end of our stay-cation already!  It FLEW by!  I can’t believe all we have left is the weekend and then I have to go to work on Monday.  BOO!

Today we are heading back up to the mountains to do a 1/2 day whitewater rafting trip with a couple of our best friends.  I’m really excited because MSP has never been rafting so I hope it’s a good experience for him and none of us gets tossed from the raft.  I have been twice in the past on team building trips with a company I used to work for and we had so much fun!  But I always get a little nervous before we go because people do have serious accidents while rafting and sometimes lose their lives.  I have a healthy fear of the power of Mother Nature.

OK, enough Debbie Downer talk.  :)   We’ll have a great time, I know it!

Speaking of great times, here is the ‘quick and dirty’ recap of our Barr Trail hike from Wednesday. (Click HERE for a PDF of a Trail Map.)  Our destination was not the summit of Pikes Peak.  We were just aiming for the halfway point called Barr Camp.  We’d aimed for this goal last September but had been misled by online pics of what looked like a leisurely stroll through aspen trees.  Which we found out was definitely not the case (at least not until you get past the first 4 miles or so.)  Because of that, we weren’t properly prepared with snacks and water.  This time we knew what we were in for, at least during the first 3 miles.  So it didn’t seem nearly as daunting!

At the trailhead the elevation is 6,570′.  We got there at 7:00 hoping to beat the rush, and we were shocked to see a full parking lot on a weekday with people parking down on the overflow parking.  The trail starts at the Cog Railway that you can ride to the top of Pikes Peak.

I didn’t take the camera out very much until we reached the camp location but here are a few shots:

This desolate-looking mountain is Pikes Peak.

It’s a bit hard to see here but if you look closely you can see the Summit House where the cog train arrives when you are at the top.  There’s a little restaurant up there and great views.  If you are ever visiting Colorado, you definitely should drive up to the top or take the cog.

After 6.27 miles of climbing, climbing, climbing in elevation, we finally made it to Barr Camp.  My trust Garmin told me 10,221′.  And you could feel it in your energy level.

Barr Camp was a lot more of a homestead than I figured it would be.  I was expecting a shack with a guestbook.  This is actually a place where people LIVE year-round.  The lady running the place right now has been living there for FIVE YEARS!  In the pic below you can see her off in the right – she was washing her clothes by hand!

We took a seat and ate our lunch.

Then it was time to make the trip down.  We were already a little fatigued after 3 hours of hiking uphill.  We thought the downhill would be a piece of cake.

Not so much.

The loose gravel on the trail is hardly noticeable on the way up.  But you slip and slide your way down.

And I bit it pretty good once:

We were having fun until about 8.5 miles.  Then the last 4 miles we were hot, I had a humongous blister on the back of my foot, and we were just ready to be done.  It took us 2:15 to travel the 6.27 miles down.  I don’t think MSP said two words the last three miles.

We both love to hike, but we found that this one exceeded the limit of our attention spans.  :)

It was the steepest and longest hike we’ve ever done.  12.54 miles, around 3,700′ of elevation gain.  We give mad props to those who continue on to the top of Pikes Peak.

A bath and a nap never felt so good!

Do you find that you have an “attention limit” even when doing things you enjoy? I’m usually about 2 hours at any one thing.  I adore movies, and even when they start creeping past 2 hours I get a little antsy.  It seems to get worse as I get older.  I had a much better attention span when I was a teenager!

Sorry for the abrupt end, but I have about 10  minutes before we leave for rafting so I have to scoot!  Have a SUPER Saturday!  Back again soon!

– Shari B. =)

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