- What an interesting place. When you
spend weeks driving across the flat, and mean REALLY flat expanses
of Kansas and Oklahoma, it is a bizarre sight to look off to
the west and see this giant, snow capped mountain, seemingly
springing out of nowhere.
-
- The road is not an easy one. Much of
it is an unpaved dirt track with steep cliff side drop offs and
without guardrails in many places. To add to the difficulty,
it is also a very high mountain. The summit is 14,110 feet above
sea level, so the lack of oxygen starts to affect you higher
brain functions. Scott, who had been a serious smoker for decades
and has recently quit, was feeling light headed on the way up
and handed the driving duties off to Dave. A wise decision considering
what might happen if he would have slipped off the road.
-
- At the top it was a winter wonderland
with 8 inches of fresh snow that came down the day before. Of
course, snowballs were thrown and we took countless pictures
of the summit, the snow around us and the view looking down onto
the Plains below. We only stayed on the top for about an hour
and a half. The temperature was below freezing and the altitude
was giving most of us a headache so down we went, back into the
warm temperatures and thick air.
-
- On the way down, a park ranger had
to check our brakes to make sure they were not overheating on
the steep, winding descent. Losing your brakes on this road is
not a good idea (to state the obvious).
-
- Back down in Colorado Springs, we treated
ourselves to a nice Mexican dinner complete with margaritas and
made plans for tomorrow, which will be our final chase day of
this project.
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