Pikes Peak Trip Report 07/30/2016

Peak(s):	Pikes Peak - 14,109 feet
Date Posted:	07/30/2016
Date Climbed:	07/30/2016
Author:	PikesPeak100

Pikes Peak #91
Hey All...Summited PP today via the Barr Trail in just over 4 hours...it was a training run for the PPA. There was incredibly dense fog for the first 4-ish miles. You know, the kind where you use your low beams and slow way down. Except I was walking/running...barely. Two things I learned: although I was sweating profusely from being in a steam room, I did not get thirsty until long after exiting it (above 9Kft). The fog was hydrating! Second, it throws off GPS by quite a bit. The lower half of the Barr now has nicely-done mile markers, and my Garmin usually gets as much as .4miles ahead of these. However, in the fog, the signal was somehow occluded, and the GPS ran behind the mile markers. Perhaps others have observed this already, apologies if it's old news A bit more gouge for the curious: the trailhead bathroom is now closed until 7:30am. I have one word for that: Brilliant! You have a sign at the trailhead that strongly recommends folks start before 6am or risk all sorts of bad consequences, but you shut up the loo until 7:30! You're now making decent coin on the parking up there, and offering fewer amenities. The parking lot was full of vehicles by 5am...I wonder where all those intestinal tracts relieved themselves? Oh, and the guy at the Iron Springs Chateau Parking IS NOT letting people park anymore before 5:30 with a note promising to pay upon return. He had a few folks never return at the end of the day, so that nice $5 alternative to the $10 parking at the trailhead is no longer available (before 5:30am). With all of that distraction going on, when paying to park, I input the wrong tag #s for the car I drove...and got a ticket! It was clear that the driver of the car (me) had paid $10 to be there this morning, but with the wrong tag info. GUILTY! I hope I can straighten it out, but I really gotta get out to some other trailheads. Manitou sucks! On a happier note...a VERY nice family from Oklahoma drove me back to Manitou! That was a fun ride!

Pikes Peak #91

Hey All...Summited PP today via the Barr Trail in just over 4 hours...it was a training run for the PPA. There was incredibly dense fog for the first 4-ish miles. You know, the kind where you use your low beams and slow way down. Except I was walking/running...barely. Two things I learned: although I was sweating profusely from being in a steam room, I did not get thirsty until long after exiting it (above 9Kft). The fog was hydrating! Second, it throws off GPS by quite a bit. The lower half of the Barr now has nicely-done mile markers, and my Garmin usually gets as much as .4miles ahead of these. However, in the fog, the signal was somehow occluded, and the GPS ran behind the mile markers. Perhaps others have observed this already, apologies if it's old news

A bit more gouge for the curious: the trailhead bathroom is now closed until 7:30am. I have one word for that: Brilliant!

You have a sign at the trailhead that strongly recommends folks start before 6am or risk all sorts of bad consequences, but you shut up the loo until 7:30! You're now making decent coin on the parking up there, and offering fewer amenities.

The parking lot was full of vehicles by 5am...I wonder where all those intestinal tracts relieved themselves?

Oh, and the guy at the Iron Springs Chateau Parking IS NOT letting people park anymore before 5:30 with a note promising to pay upon return. He had a few folks never return at the end of the day, so that nice $5 alternative to the $10 parking at the trailhead is no longer available (before 5:30am).

With all of that distraction going on, when paying to park, I input the wrong tag #s for the car I drove...and got a ticket! It was clear that the driver of the car (me) had paid $10 to be there this morning, but with the wrong tag info. GUILTY! I hope I can straighten it out, but I really gotta get out to some other trailheads. Manitou sucks!

On a happier note...a VERY nice family from Oklahoma drove me back to Manitou! That was a fun ride!

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