Backpacking Pikes Peak Solo

My first trip up and down Pikes Peak. I am goinng to try and add Data to my trip reports from now on.

One thing I will never forget is camping at 13,000 feet and having a Pika attack my bivy all night. He did not like me camping up in his patch of rocks.I also made a wrong turn about 2 miles up the trail and ended up climbing the top half of the Incline in the dark. Also there was the Pikes Peak Challenge going on. You cant tell from the pictures but there was easily about a 1000 hikers climbing the peak that day.

America The Beautiful
The lyrics to this America the Beautiful were written by Katharine Lee Bates (1859-1929) an instructor at Wellesley College, Massachusetts, after an inspiring trip to the top of Pikes Peak, Colorado, in 1893.

Here I am after making the Summit. Even though I have been to the to via car in the past this one had much more meaning.

The Cirque, its scary to look over this edge.

Here is my camp site at 13,000 feet just 1 mile from the summit. I was attacked by a pika all night and it was extremely windy all night hence a night of camping that I will never forget.

Here is the GPS data layerd over google earth. Pretty Cool! Round trip was 26 miles and tons of vertical. I was beat and did the whole trip solo with a cast.