Day 1: Boy meets mountain.

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The sun crept slowly across the Arkansas River Valley. To the west, the tallest range of mountains in the Rockies, The Collegiate Peaks, were illuminated by the morning sun rising over the eastern hills that we were bivouacked on. A blue sky greeted me this morning on a hike up the hill. I took in views from afar of barren-topped mountains, fog, and two hot air balloons rising in the calm air, which was quite the opposite of the night that had just passed: a classic monsoon. Storms rolling in slowly over Yale, Harvard, or Oxford Mountain, with lightning, and some incredible wind. All this rocking us in intervals every hour or so; almost enough time to set up our faulty tent with no rain tarp included.

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"It feels like we've been out here for 2 or 3 days already!" Aytonn remarked over and over yesterday. We left Wichita, Kansas only two nights ago, and woke up yesterday morning to quite a sight. The Garden of the Gods is the modest name behind a few spectacular red sandstone formations jutting out of the landscape like giant fins, nestled below Pike's Peak. It was 6AM the fog had only begun to dissipate leaving us ignorant of the looming mountains above the clouds, where we hoped to ascend that day.
From afar Pike's Peak is one of the more breathtaking mountains. Not only is it massive but it rises out of Colorado Springs' 6,000 feet to 14,000 all the while showing off the multiple climates from the lower forests filled with wild flowers, up to the quieter pine forests, and finally to the solitude of the boulder escarpments which only seem to accommodate some rugged and efficient beings of local fauna, marmots, and mountain goats.

On a sad note, the top of Pike's Peak was truly anti-climactic. Thanks to a trainload (an actual train runs up the mountain) of tourist who just rolled in, we navigated the freezing-cold muddy parking lot to the only building ther which sold about every trinket you could want except for something useful, had an long and very impatient line of people waiting for the restroom, and the only donuts in the world you could get at 14k with no choice of frosting. Only plain donuts.

The ride up and down was a great deal more fun with views galore, rocks, and wildlife to boot. A fun steep road kept us entertained most of the way, until a ranger checking the temperature of our brake pads asked us to pullover for half an hour, giving us time to do some bouldering. Pike's Peak was pretty magnificent, but it's the last time I will pay for entrance into a National Forest.

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Back below Collegiate Peaks, we've packed up camp, and happy to have survived the night thanks to plastic tarps, yucca leaves for string, and human ingenuity in the face of not wanting wet sleeping bags. Getting to the highway, we cross the river again, the same Arkansas River that I dared not step into in Wichita, yet that morning I washed my dishes in its clear rapids.
So we continue North, not knowing our next place of rest, but still closing in on the quiet hermitage of our brother Ishai.

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Comments

[Debs]

will we see you
when you come through FF? This is very descriptive writing,are you planning to 'write something' to publish? I have to admit to having to look up 'bivouacked', not ever having seen the word. Perhaps it's just because camp/backpack around the world, anyway I enjoyed the entry, thanks for sharing, all the best, Debs