Pikes Peak

In reference to the last two days, Mike said "I came to Colorado Springs just to do Pikes Peak".  I am sure is was purely coincidental that we ended up here during the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb. Mike is a car guy to the core, so we know the PPIHC well.  We paid our fee and started the climb.

We pondered aloud if we would see Aaron Kaufman since we watched his first attempt of the PPIHC on Fast and Loud.  Before we could finish our statement, down comes a F250 hauling a trailer with Aaron's Falcon on it!  And I wasn't fast enough to snap a picture.  

I took a million photos.  Mike and I thoroughly enjoyed every mile of the climb.  The views were incredible, the twists and turns fun and the weather phenomenal.

As usual, I wandered too close to the edge for Mike.

One more "you're making me nervous" pics of @the_adventure_wife standing in the rocks at Pikes Peak. #wrongsideoftheguardrail

A photo posted by Mike (@ktmmike) on Jun 22, 2016 at 7:12pm PDT

At the top, we wandered around for a bit before we said farewell to our adventure friends for the rest of the day.  We wanted to spend as much time on Pikes Peak as possible.  Mike bought us some homemade donuts (man they were amazing) and we munched on them on the way down.

We hit just about all of the turn offs and view points.  And of course played in the snow with Rommel.

At Devil's Playground (named for the incredible lighting shows that occur there) I separated and explored.  

Find the marmot!!

By the time we got back into the Jeep, rain was obviously moving in but didn't actual hit us until the bottom.

About ⅔ of the way down, there was a stop where an attendant measured the temperature of brakes and would stop those that wore their brakes too hot to continue.  The attendant was very proud of us, praising us for 106* brake temps.  Imagine that, we got a proverbial gold star for having a manual transmission.  HA! 

We hit Colorado Springs and fled westward.  "The curse of cities is that they root people in one location and make them blind". Ogadai Khan

We drove through the rain to Woodland Park where we stopped at the Ute Brewing Company for pulled pork sandwiches and a few frosty beverages for Mike.  After wandering a bit through town, we finally finished our day back at Painted Rocks Campground.  

It rained off an on.  We had a light dinner and finally turned in.

Today was an incredible day.  We had a blast on Pikes Peak and today made the whole trip to Colorado Springs worth it.

PS: While we didn't take video of the drive, here is a super relaxing video of one of my favorite race cars climbing Pikes Peak.

Big Red Pikes Peak Test Day 2016 from Big Red Camaro on Vimeo.