Monday June 17 2024

June 08, 2024

Monday June 17 2024

Monday June 17

One activity that Lydia found out about while in the area is hiking the Manitou Incline. The Incline, as it’s called locally, is a hike that climbs over 2000 vertical feet in less than a mile with grades as steep as 68 percent! Not for the faint of heart! It is something that people do as a bucket list challenge, so we decided to give it a try. The Incline org requires that you book a timeslot in advance, but there is no cost to do the climb. Unfortunately for us the early timeslots were taken for today, so we booked 11 am. We arrived in Manitou Springs plenty early, parked at one of the town lots and took the shuttle bus to the Incline base. A few of the riders on the shuttle had done the Incline before so when we disembarked from the bus we followed them thinking they knew where they were going. Wrong! We started up the Barr Trail which is actually the trail that is used for descending after climbing the Incline. It didn’t take long before I was questioning if we were on the right path and a quick check on All Trails proved that we were not. We did an about face and proceeded back to where we’d been dropped off and followed the obvious signage to the start of the Incline. Rooky mistake, don’t trust other people’s sense of direction!

The Incline path is made up of 8x8 timbers for steps and looked daunting – stairway to heaven, maybe. We snapped a few pictures at the base of the climb, Lydia didn’t seem too energetic but gave the thumbs up even though temperatures were starting to climb into the mid 30s, in full sun. We had plenty of water and I was anxious to get going so off we went. I settled into a comfortable pace and soon reached step 500 out of 2,744. I stopped to have a drink and rest for a second in the shade of a bush and looked back down to see where Lydia was. At first she was obscured by other hikers but then I noticed that she had stopped and had her hand on the fence beside the path. She bent over and I thought she was going to sit down but then she put her foot up on the next step, made a wobbly attempt to go up and then collapsed in a heap on the path! I immediately scrambled down 100 or so steps toward her, meanwhile a couple had seen her fall and were attending to her, trying to lift her over to the other side of the path and into some shade. I arrived and assisted in moving her. Lydia came around quickly – she had fainted, not the first time, so I splashed some water on her face and eventually got her to drink. I explained to the helpful couple that this had happened before, and we would be alright. Lydia took a few minutes to regain her composure, brushed of some dust, and had some more water before making our way back down slowly and carefully. Once at the bottom Lydia made a pit stop at a convenient porta-potty and emerged feeling more like herself. And that was the end of our attempt at the Manitou Incline! Quick side note; Lydia did have a bunch of scrapes and had hit her head on the fence rail so she wasn’t feeling her best. We made a retreat to the parking via the shuttle and returned back to camp for showers and to regroup.

Tonight we had reservations at the Flying W Ranch just north of Colorado Springs. The ranch opened at 5:30 with diner at 7 followed by a western music show. We decided to leave from the camp early and make a stop on the way in Manitou Springs as it was a quaint town and we didn’t have a chance to look around earlier in the day. Lots of stores and galleries in Manitou Springs, stopped for a drink before making our way back to the truck and headed off to the Flying W.

The Flying W turned out to be a hit…lovely property nestled in the foothills of the Rockies with some of the Garden of the God type monoliths surrounding the ranch. They had various activities to keep people busy before dinner including axe throwing, archery and lassoing to name a few. There was also some native American dancers and artisans on site.

Just before 7 we made our way to our table and sat with a nice couple from Cheyenne Wyoming who were celebrating their anniversary. We struck up a conversation and had an enjoyable dinner chatting with them. After the food, which was excellent and filling, the band came on and played two sets. They were a 5-piece house band all with great voices. They played a mixture of country and contemporary tunes and very professional and entertaining. We thoroughly enjoyed our evening at the Flying W Ranch.

Back at camp after our really nice evening, we had to battle another barrage of moths, annoying, but didn’t take long to swat them all away…and then to bed.