The Incline

This morning I crossed something off my Colorado bucket list: hiking The Incline.  This hike is just what it sounds like: walking up the side of a mountain.  According to this website, The Incline is one mile long, with a 2000-feet elevation gain, with the steepest grade being 68%.  For some reason I have wanted to do this for four years, and today it finally happened.  I met some friends at 5:30 a.m. and we drove to Manitou for a slowpoke attempt at the hike.

Just getting started.  See the top up there?  Yeah, that's not really the top.

It was harder than I thought it would be.  Granted, I'm not in great shape, but I thought that my regular hour-long runs and elliptical sessions would count for something!  And I suppose they did.  But I was still quite winded most of the time.  I appreciated the company of friends.  Starr and I hiked together for about the last half, and that was great.

The view down from about the half-way point.

When I finally made it to the top (in an hour and twenty minutes), I was very tired, but also kind of felt like celebrating.  I'm pleased that my worn-out body can do hard things again.

As I hiked I kept thinking about parallels between The Incline and this thing called Life. As long as I kept my eyes on the goal and put one foot in front of the other, I knew I'd make it to my destination.  Pleasant companions made the journey so much better.  And reaching the top after all that hard work felt fantastic.

Our group: Alicia, Ashley, Heidi, Starr, Lisa, and Jennifer
(plus Sandy, who hiked half-way)

I'm not sure when I'll hike The Incline again, but I hope for another time or two before the weather turns.  Zach and Tyler really want to try it.  We'll see!