Today I climbed Pike's Peak via the Crags route. I got my best time of 2 hours 11 minutes....next time I shoot for sub 2 hours [puke]. It's a steep climb. 4,393 feet of elevation in 6.8 miles! It got me thinking about Pike and his exploration of the area. As an adventure racer, I'm impressed by the guts and endurance that early explorers had in their travels.
"When Pike first saw the peak that would later bear his name, he grossly underestimated its height and its distance, never having seen mountains the size of the Rockies. He told his men they should be able to walk to the peak, climb it, and return before dinner. Pike and his men struggled through snow and sub-zero temperatures before finally taking shelter in a cave for the night, without even having reached the base of the towering mountain. Pike later pronounced the peak impossible to scale." - History.com
Then, I started thinking about Pike's Cave....hmm...I wonder if I can find it? And I look at my map and lo! It's on there! This is my next mission: Find the cave Pike and his crew hunkered down in. How cool it will be to trace this explorer's footsteps!