Barr Camp

I yawned as I woke up a fortnight ago to go up to Barr camp. "5:30" I said to my brother. "Why are we doing this?" I barely remember what went on that morning, besides going to the wrong meeting point. Eventually, we started trudging up Pikes Peak. We walked at a fairly even pace with a slope of 10° until halfway up, then it got easier and more gradual. In the last 1/2 mile, my whole body hurt. When we finally got to Barr Camp, we all happily took off our ice spikes and went into the cabin to settle in. We spent the rest of the day resting, playing cards and drinking lots of well-earned hot cocoa. Eventually, we all dozed off by 9:00 PM to rest up for the long hike down.

The next morning I woke up around 8:00, and dragged myself into the main room where the people who ran the place made everyone a complementary pancake breakfast. Then we were off and hiking down the trail. Going downhill was much easier than coming uphill. Gravity is a wonderful thing when it works in your favor. A little more than halfway down I took off my spikes, because I knew from yesterday that there was no ice. I was wrong. The little bit of snow that was there melted and turned to ice causing it to be slick.  There was this one part where everyone slipped because of that. Eventually we all got down to the bottom safe and went home. At the end of the trip I was so tired, I did nothing for the rest of the day. Even so, I look forward to another trip to Barr Camp.