BEARS IN THE MOUNTAINS, Part One
In which Grandbear takes his elder Grandcub on an adventure.
For Daniel’s twelfth birthday, I took him on his first airplane trip (that he remembers) to see the Rockies. His mom dropped him off Sunday (the day after his birthday). We went through his stuff: to pack it better, and to determine what could be left behind. We finished packing our joint baggage. Then we went down for a very short night. The alarm went off at 3:00 in the morning. We were on the road by 3:18, at the Indy airport at 4:15, off on a plane by 5:45.
It was an early flight
We had an uneventful flight to Dallas, changed planes for Colorado Springs and arrived with the whole day before us. I had a Chevy Spark awaiting us at the rental outfit. We checked in and zoomed off to find adventure.
Joe Cool in the pregnant roller skate
Our first stop was Garden of the Gods, one of the weirdest and most beautiful stone formations anywhere. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a place to park that would get us into the Central Garden. So we kind of fiddled around on the edge.
Bouldering
Triumph!
Time was pressing, so we went off to find Manitou Springs and the historic Cog Railway. This was built way back by a guy named Simmons from back East. He spent three days going up Pikes Peak on burros and thought it the most uncivilized thing he had ever done. So when he got back to his home, he convinced some investors to build the railway to give an easier ascent of the mountain. Simmons later sold out his shares to other investors, but the Cog Railway isn’t the only thing he is remembered for. The Simmons BeautyRest Mattress is made by his company.
Cog Railway
It takes a good hour to go up the mountain, and a good hour to go down it again. In between, you get forty minutes at the Visitor Center on Pikes Peak. The scenery was overwhelming. We passed the place where Katharine Lee Bates wrote her poem, “America the Beautiful,” called Inspiration Point in her memory.
O beautiful, for spacious skies
When we reached the top, Daniel went to the nearest pile of snow, of which there were still patches on the peak. As soon as I stepped off the railcar, however, I was smitten by an overwhelming dizziness. Short on sleep, stressed, leaving the flatlands only that day, the altitude did me some bad bizness. I have never been that walloped by elevation. I sat very quietly most of the time I was up there, although in trying to buy some aspirin for a headache, I was told there was none for sale – but they had aspirin. There is a little first aid room with two EMTs on hand. I rested there for a while and took 324 mg of aspirin. I was feeling some better in just a few minutes, but I still slept half the trip down the mountain.
Snow on top of Pikes Peak
After that, we boogied down the intersnake to Walsenburg and found our campsite at Lathrop S.P. We went to bed early. In fact, we largely went to bed before dark and got up before sunrise every day on this trip.
Sunset at Lathrop S.P., Colorado
For Daniel’s twelfth birthday, I took him on his first airplane trip (that he remembers) to see the Rockies. His mom dropped him off Sunday (the day after his birthday). We went through his stuff: to pack it better, and to determine what could be left behind. We finished packing our joint baggage. Then we went down for a very short night. The alarm went off at 3:00 in the morning. We were on the road by 3:18, at the Indy airport at 4:15, off on a plane by 5:45.
It was an early flight
We had an uneventful flight to Dallas, changed planes for Colorado Springs and arrived with the whole day before us. I had a Chevy Spark awaiting us at the rental outfit. We checked in and zoomed off to find adventure.
Joe Cool in the pregnant roller skate
Our first stop was Garden of the Gods, one of the weirdest and most beautiful stone formations anywhere. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find a place to park that would get us into the Central Garden. So we kind of fiddled around on the edge.
Bouldering
Triumph!
Time was pressing, so we went off to find Manitou Springs and the historic Cog Railway. This was built way back by a guy named Simmons from back East. He spent three days going up Pikes Peak on burros and thought it the most uncivilized thing he had ever done. So when he got back to his home, he convinced some investors to build the railway to give an easier ascent of the mountain. Simmons later sold out his shares to other investors, but the Cog Railway isn’t the only thing he is remembered for. The Simmons BeautyRest Mattress is made by his company.
Cog Railway
It takes a good hour to go up the mountain, and a good hour to go down it again. In between, you get forty minutes at the Visitor Center on Pikes Peak. The scenery was overwhelming. We passed the place where Katharine Lee Bates wrote her poem, “America the Beautiful,” called Inspiration Point in her memory.
O beautiful, for spacious skies
When we reached the top, Daniel went to the nearest pile of snow, of which there were still patches on the peak. As soon as I stepped off the railcar, however, I was smitten by an overwhelming dizziness. Short on sleep, stressed, leaving the flatlands only that day, the altitude did me some bad bizness. I have never been that walloped by elevation. I sat very quietly most of the time I was up there, although in trying to buy some aspirin for a headache, I was told there was none for sale – but they had aspirin. There is a little first aid room with two EMTs on hand. I rested there for a while and took 324 mg of aspirin. I was feeling some better in just a few minutes, but I still slept half the trip down the mountain.
Snow on top of Pikes Peak
After that, we boogied down the intersnake to Walsenburg and found our campsite at Lathrop S.P. We went to bed early. In fact, we largely went to bed before dark and got up before sunrise every day on this trip.
Sunset at Lathrop S.P., Colorado