Day 19: Pike’s Peak and Manitou Springs, CO

Today we felt especially blessed to be on this adventure. I think mountains might do that to people. They are majestic and awe inspiring.

Ascending (and descending) Pike’s Peak - the tallest place we have been to with our feet on the ground (elevation: 14,115 feet at the summit) - was somewhat harrowing. The drive up wove through tight switchbacks, often with cliffs on one side. It is unbelievable to me that there is actually an annual event where (crazy) people RACE to the summit. It took us a hour to ascend; the record race time is 7:57 minutes in 2018. Nuts! It was a frosty 7 degrees C on the summit with lots of snow! We tried the summit specialty - cinnamon donuts.

After visiting the summit, we spent the afternoon fishing for trout in the nearby South Catamount Reservoir. This was perhaps the most beautiful place I have ever been. Liam was the fishing master catching the lion’s share of our limit. He even caught a very special brown trout, that despite the boring name in fact has a vibrant scarlet stomach and gorgeous spotted body.

This afternoon was perfect to get the truck’s first oil change at the 7,000 km mark.

We finished the day off with a visit to Manitou Springs to taste test their route of naturally carbonated springs. The occurrence of these springs is once again due to a karst landscape where the underground rivers eroding the limestone hit the Ute fault line and are forced to the surface as natural springs. Interestingly, each spring in Manitou Springs has a different mineral composition, different degree of carbonation, and hence a slightly different taste. We decided that 7 Minute Spring tasted best to us. Our least favourite was Shoshone Spring which had the highest mineral content of the eight springs and draws healers from all over the world seeking out its special waters. It was thought to help people suffering from tuberculosis in the past. We thought it tasted salty but others seemed to enjoy it.

Shoshone spring with some monks partaking

7 Minute spring - our favourite 

Our evening revolved around cleaning fish, doing laundry and everyone taking one last shower as we prepare to roll out of here tomorrow.