The Manitou Incline

This weekend I did what had to be the dumbest, most intensive thing I have ever done. I hiked the Manitou Incline.

The incline started out as a railroad that ascended to the top of Mt. Manitou in the early 1900’s before it was closed. All that remains now are 5,000 railroad ties with an elevation gain of over 2,000 ft over a total distance of just under a mile. It averages a 40% grade with a maximum grade of 68%. Once you reach the peak you are standing at an elevation of about 8,600 ft above sea level. Pretty intense if you ask me.  You can see the scar of it going up the side of the mountain in the picture above.

 

 

This is the start of it. A very foreboding sight.

 

 

 

 

 

These two were taken about a quarter of the way looking both up and down. The parking lot in the center of the second picture is the starting point.

You gotta take breaks to catch your breath, both from climbing and from the views.

 

 

 

 

After a long afternoon of climbing I finally made it to the top.

This is looking towards downtown Colorado Springs from the summit.

 

 

 

 

Here you can see the city of Manitou Springs in the foreground with Colorado Springs in the background.

Hiking up the incline was very difficult but it was fun and I may do it again. But first I need to  get some feeling back in my legs.

Ok Go

This video has been out for sometime now but I think it is still pretty cool and funny. It is a music video from the band Ok Go.

And I have just been using treadmills to run on. I could be having so much more fun doing pt.

This is their newest video which is what made me think of the last one.

 

I think that’s pretty crazy. I wonder how many times they had to film this to get it to work just right?

Garden of the Gods

I drove through Garden of the Gods a few weeks ago while the weather was nice. There was pretty much no one there as it was a weekday which was very nice. You may remember Garden of the Gods from this post on my moms blog from when they came to visit last year. I got some good pictures of all the formations which I thought I would share with you all today.

 

 

  

I saw this house on a trail that leads out of Garden of the Gods. It was part of a gated community with several other giant houses. I wouldn’t mind living there, but sure wouldn’t want to pay the bill!

Jesus Rifles Part 2

I just saw on yahoo news that Trijicon voluntarily  offered to remove the scripture verses from all of their sights at no cost to the government. If you want to read the article here is a link.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_military_weapons_bible_references

Jesus Rifles?

So I saw this video on yahoo news last night and thought I would share it with you all. Unfortunately I could not get it to embed on here so you are just going to have to follow the link by copy and pasting it into your browser.

http://news.yahoo.com/video/us-15749625/secret-jesus-bible-codes-on-u-s-military-weapons-17700769

Now I don't know how you feel about this matter, but I think it's ridiculous. For one, Trijicon has been manufacturing this sights for several years and no one has cared; until the liberal media found out and now all the sudden it's an outrage.

Secondly I am only guessing here but I highly doubt that any terrorist that somehow gets his hands on one of these is going to be able to put two and two together and realize that the random letters and numbers are actually a verse from the bible that they don't read about a God that they don't belive in. So how can you be offended by something you don't belive in?

Personally I think it's awesome that Trijicon has been producing these sights. I hope they continue this practice for many more years. However since the sights are being used on military weapons it is going to be just another way the government is going to try to step in and take away our freedoms.

Maybe I'm overreacting a little but it's my opinion and I say, Jesus rifles? Really? Give me a break.