We Drove to Mars (I mean, Pikes Peak)

Our outing today consisted of another smoked trout taco at Smokin' Q, and then a drive up to the top of Pikes Peak. 14,110 feet. The drive up is 19 miles up, about 7,000 feet elevation gain. And then back down. Here are some photos:

It says Pikes Peak, but it kinda looks like Mars, doesn't it?

We saw this same Mennonite family yesterday at the bottom of the Royal Gorge, too. And now, here they are at the top of Pikes Peak. Funny.

On the way home we stopped and got a few groceries, washed the truck, and got gas. Here's where we just were, nicely lit:

After we got back to the Airstream we decided to go for a hike before it got dark. Right at the end of our "Peak View" loop at Mueller State Park there's a trailhead for what looked like a nice hike (2.2 miles, moderate, loop with Pikes Peak views). We did that, and now we're sipping a martini and making dinner.

Here's the hike:

And here are the stats:

Not a very long or difficult hike, but there were a few pretty steep parts, and on the last steep ascent I was feeling pretty tired. I've had a cold for the past couple days, took one dose of DayQuil this morning, went to 14,000 feet earlier, and was doing a moderately strenuous hike at 9700 feet. Also, we were playing a word game we often play while we're hiking in bear country so that we continue talking…it goes like this: one person says a two word phrase, the other person takes one word of that and makes a new phrase, the first person takes the new word and makes a new phrase, etc.

Tree trunk. Tree house. House marm. School marm. Art school. Art Pepper. Salt n Pepa.

You get it.

Anyway, so we were talking while exerting ourselves on a hike at 9700 feet. And my fingertips got a little blue. It was just for a few minutes, but trippy. A little bit of hypoxia. We know about hypoxia from flying. In the plane when we fly we have a little thing called a pulse oximeter to measure hemoglobin saturation…so we can make sure our supplemental oxygen is dialed in to the right amount. If I'd had that little gadget on this hike with me, I think I know I would have had a bad score. I'm better now. (Kevin says my cognitive response was completely fine because I was rocking our "keep the bears away word game".)