Manitou Incline

Yesterday, my good friend Dave, took me down south to the small town of Manitou to tackle the venerable Manitou Incline. The incline consists of a 1 mile hike that goes up 2000' in elevation, with the steepest grade being reported at a nasty 68%. From the road in, the incline shows it's impressive length and grade. This trail is no joke and has taken the life of at least one man.

That's a steep trail.

We drive through the small town and I'm impressed by the number of people who are there to climb this technically illegal hike. Although this is the only illegal trail where I've seen a 'No Trespassing' sign with a donation box for trail upkeep.

Entrance to the "illegal" trail.

One thing that strikes me when we get on to the railroad ties and head up, is it looks shorter than from a distance. But this is due to a false summit right after the steepest portion. Fortunately after this false summit, the going is easier. There's several places you can peel off to the side and get some shade to rest and a few spots you can cut over to the Barr Lake trail and head back down if you feel like you're gonna die.

A few steps in. This is gonna be tough.

As usual Dave powers up and at one point was probably 50 yards ahead of me. During the steepest part, I was doing what I call "The Everest Shuffle", where I'd take about 10-15 steps, stop and rest a second, 10-12, rest, etc.

Dave and Parker The Insane Wonder Dog pulling ahead.

We passed several people of all ages on the way up and only one guy passed us. He was wearing a Heartbreak Ridge Marathon t-shirt and looked like a hard charger for sure. Some people were running back down, one guy with no shoes on. Looked like a terrible idea to me, as one slip and you could take a long tumble down some serious stairs.

Hugging the shade in the insane August heat.

I made the top at 43:23 with Dave and Parker about a full minute ahead of me.

Top of the world ma!

We hung out for a few minutes reveling in our awesomeness, then cut over to the Barr Lake trail for the hike down. After a few minutes of walking down, we figured we better run it. The trail is 4 miles long with a lot of switchbacks. Very fun to run.

Coming down.

Fun run down, but tough on the knees.

What a great bit of exercise and get stamina training for you racers. Fantastic lower body work and I'm sore from my ass to my ankles today. We feel ready to kick ass at the Muddy Buddy next Sunday.