The day before we got the stay at home orders from the Colorado Governor, I took a couple of my Girl Scouts to local grocery stores to deliver Girl Scout Cookies. The idea was to leave cookies in the break room to thank employees for dealing with cranky customers and keeping the shelves stocked.
We went to all the stores what allowed our girls to sell cookies, as well as the two Costco’s in town; my mom works for a Costco in California and said they would love it if we left them cookies. I have to say, the Costco employees gave us the warmest response! Two of the Walmarts we visited couldn’t take the cookies (but the other 7 could). Since a few of the Walmarts said ‘no’ we stopped by one of the girls’ favorite Safeway and gave some to their employees. We also passed some cookies out to firefighters at the store buying food and some people experiencing homelessness downtown.
Next we headed to a local truck stop to deliver cookies to truck drivers. Lots of hand sanitizer and social distancing was applied. Most of the truckers were sleeping in their cabs, so we just left cookies on their stairs with notes.
It was a well spent afternoon and when we were done the girls were happy with what they did. In the next few days the outpouring of gratitude from the truck drivers was amazing! Many found us on social media and posted ‘Thank-yous’ to my girls. We felt kind of weird getting thank-yous because we wanted to thank them, but it was great seeing the girls faces light up as I read them the responses. Have you thanked a truck driver (or other essential employee) today?
The girls planned this event 8 months ago. The goal: to hike to the top of the Manitou Incline wearing onesies. Me, being their leader and knowing they weren’t referring to outfits they wore as infants, had to look up what onesies were (pajama-like costumes that are all one piece). This sounded fun to me so we worked on setting up a date. We settled on the first week in December because we thought the weather would be cooler, there’d be less people climbing, and because band and cheerleading would be over so more girls could attend. They all met at my house and we carpooled to the free shuttle lot. Side note: they all drive now, which is weird since I’ve known them all since they were 5.
I’ve never used the shuttle before but it sounded like fun to go with a group and it would save us $20 in parking fees so I was all onboard with this idea. Once the shuttle arrived we had to wait a while for it to take us to the incline (it only goes every 20 minutes) so we talked about our strategy and goals for the climb.
I’d shown them a video last week about hiking the incline and they were all excited to try it themselves.
When we finally arrived we walked up to the start of the incline (one of the harder parts of the hike, actually) and the girls put on their microspikes. I wasn’t 100% sure they were needed, but it’s better to be safe than sorry and the troop owned enough pairs so everyone wore them. I took a selfie with the girls and we were off!
We started out at a moderate pace
But after the first 200 steps or so they all needed a break and two of them were having a hard time breathing. Not gonna lie, I got a little worried at this point. When I hike the Incline I don’t take breaks. Well, today we took a lot of breaks. And I mean a lot. Every 100 steps or so we stopped.
Soon the girls had tied the arms of the onesies around their waist (who’s idea was it to wear felt on this thing?) and we stopped at the Christmas Tree (the halfway point) for an extended rest.
We were glad we’d chosen to hike in December: Yes, the weather was cooler (this would not have been fun in onesies in the sun) and there were less people than normal.
More hiking….
And more resting…
But to be fair, their rests were short and they all kept going. One of my girls had her Tourettes start acting up and she had a hard time seeing due to the ticks but she never complained. They were all tired but no one wanted to quit. I’m proud of them for that! The microspikes ended up coming in handy after the bailout spot, when the trail got icy for a bit.
The girls stayed pretty much together, only being separated by a few feet or so for most of the hike, with Kimberly powering on ahead as we neared the summit. Finally, after an hour and a half of hiking, the girls made it to the summit!
Jules got out the Fun Dip and the girls rested for a bit while I got out the hot chocolate and apple cider. We ended up only having the apple cider though, as my fuel canister had run out and we didn’t have anything to heat the water (bummer!)
I took a selfie because hey, how many people hike the incline in costumes? Caroline did as well, I’m guessing for SnapChat
I tried to get them to continue on to Rocky Mountain but Emily had winterguard practice and everyone was hungry so it was time to gather our stuff and head back down. The Barr Trail down was much icier than the Incline route up and I was glad we had spikes. The girls realized just how important they were when one of Emily’s broke and she took it off. In less than a minute she slipped and fell on the ice, landing on her back. Hard. Ouch! But bless her, she took some ibuprofen and kept hiking. We made it back down to the shuttle at 1:45pm, making this a 4.5 mile hike with 1962’ of elevation gain in 3 hours.
We rode the bus back to our cars and drove to Fargo’s Pizza, where Breanna met up with us and we all chatted for a bit. It’s so cool watching these girls grow up! We discussed boys, school dances, cookie sales, homework, teachers, and a little about our upcoming trip to California.
This year Girl Scout Troop 2393 chose to be traffic cones (an inside joke) for their theme at Reach for the Peak. They spent hundreds (if not thousands) of hours this year practicing for this competition, designing costumes, skits, and practicing their outdoor survival and cooking skills. They went a little overboard for campsite set-up this year, being overly “cautious” and creating hazards out of caution tape (which they thought was hilarious). I loved the “Marmot” and “Bighorn Sheep” crossing signs they made. They were all exhausted after set-up, but still stayed up for a bit talking in their tent before falling asleep. I was laying in my tent, proud to hear them decide they wanted to practice their knots again before bed. Then Caroline led them all in a short yoga/shavasana session, and they fell asleep.
First thing in the morning the girls ate breakfast and made their lunches for the day. In the past they’ve been docked points for not having a nutritious enough lunch, so this time they went overboard with the fruits and veggies!
Then it was off to flag where they had a few extra minutes and decided to dedicate them to practicing their knots (once again).
Their first competition of the day was Emergency Survival, which they rocked! Oh, and Caroline was great at reminding everyone about sunscreen and water… She even made up a song!
Fire building is Emily’s specialty. At Reach for the Peak they have the girls use metal fire barrels, which are actually difficult to use because they’re concave and not flat like a normal fire pit. This has been an issue for the girls for years, but this summer Emily was a camp counselor at this camp and figured out the trick to starting fires in these particular barrels. She didn’t use a traditional A-frame of Log cabin, but was able to quickly and efficiently start the fire. And the girls popped the popcorn and put it out in the allotted time. Lauren was in charge of tool craft and sawed logs for the girls to use. Great job ladies!
On to the lashing competition! When the girls first came here 6 years ago they had the same task: to build a trebuchet and launch a cow over the moon. They weren’t able to get much done that year, but this year they were able to successfully build the machine and launch a ‘cow’ over the moon. They were so proud of themselves! (also, these are all timed events)
The girls were really excited for Emergency First Aid this year, as they all have their CPR/First Aid certificates and Kimberly’s currently working as a lifeguard at the local YMCA. Their victims were cut up pretty badly and one was having a heart attack. Neither of them died!
Next up were knots. These girls have been practicing knots since 2008, and know them all pretty well. This competition was fun for the girls: they even did a handful extra, hoping to earn extra points…
The last competition for the girls was the dinner competition. They’ve practiced this meal on four different campouts this summer, and have got the recipe down. Check out their menu… It’s Road Kill Themed and included frying plantain chips and cooking an entire chicken in the Dutch Oven
RftP 2019 Menu – You Kill It, We Grill It
Kabobs (Grill) – Fender Tenders
Corn (Fire) – Chunks of Skunk
Shrimp (Cooler) – Deer Tail
Plantain Chips (Pan) – Road Flakes
Fruit Salad (cold) – Highway Hash
Chicken (Dutch Oven) – If you can guess what it is you eat for free!
Veggies (pot) – Slop (Guess that mess?)
Pudding & Gummie Worms (Hobo) – Dirt Cups
Sun Tea (Solar) – Bug Juice
After the competition dinner was cleaned up the real fun began! The girls invited some other troops competing they’d met at previous competitions to have a campfire with them. The girls all live in different parts of the state but in the past few years have really hit it off: they’ve even joined us at Hamp Hut! This year one of the troops asked if their younger sister troop could join in, so we had double the number of girls. This is one of my favorite parts about Girl Scouting: the girls are all in ‘competition’ with each other, yet really cheer each other on and genuinely like each other. They share a bond. We had a fire and the girls chatted about how they felt they did in the competition events and life in general until it started raining and everyone went back to their tents. It rained all night long, but finally stopped around 6:30am, just in time to pack up all our gear and get ready for awards.
Oh, but first, it’s skits! Check out the skit Troop 2393 came up with…
And now time for awards: Before they were given out the girls posed by their traffic cone (another inside joke).
The girls earned the Eagle Award! Great Job Ladies!
This event is made possible by a wonderful committee of volunteers who put a lot of time and effort into this event. It’s by far my girls favorite Girl Scouting activity, and they talk about it with every troop they meet. If you’d like to help volunteer with this event in any way (as a judge, with ideas, special skills, monetary donations, etc.) please let me know and I’ll put you in touch with the right person. I love watching the girls grow every year in their outdoor survival skills!
This time when we made it to the parking lot at the base of the trail it was halfway full. Apparently there were a lot of hikers this weekend!
Even though I’d asked them to go before we left the house, one of the girls needed to use the restroom before we started. I’m not a fan of trail restrooms, and encouraged her to wait a bit because it was probably dirty, but she insisted. So while I paid for parking she used the restroom. When she got back she said it was pretty clean, but there was a homeless person sleeping outside. Facepalm.
We started the trail at 3:06am. There was no moon to guide us, so we got a great view of Manitou and Colorado Springs as we hiked.
The girls made pretty good time. We made it to MM2 at 3:59am, which meant they were hiking a little over 2mph.
Around MM4 it got really, really cold. I’m not sure why (I’m guessing it’s due to a shift in topography) but MM4-6.5 of Barr Trail are always really, really cold. It felt like the temperature dropped at least 20 degrees. I’m guessing it was in the high 20s. It got so cold my hands started to swell and I lost feeling in my fingers. Luckily there was no wind, but I honestly felt colder than I had a few weeks ago when it was snowing. I put on my gloves, but that didn’t really help. I kept encouraging the sun to rise over and over again, knowing that’s what I needed to warm up.
We made it to Barr Camp at 6:05 (still hiking about 2mph), and about 15 minutes later the sun began to rise and we began to thaw out. The colors on the mountain in the morning are absolutely amazing! There is so much light it’s really hard to get a clear picture, but that didn’t stop me from trying:
I was really surprised at how much red was in the light this morning
Added to the red was the changing yellow of the aspens.
We made it to A-frame at 7:35am. The A-frame was occupied by an older man and his adult children. They’d hiked Pikes Peak 18 years ago and were back to hike it again. It looked like they were set up to camp all weekend.
We also learned there was a special hike today: The Pikes Peak Challenge.
The Pikes Peak Challenge is the Brain Injury
Alliance of Colorado’s flagship fundraising event.
Participants have the opportunity to raise funds by climbing Pikes Peak. We were told there were about 400 participants, but not to worry because we were hours ahead of them. Also, this wasn’t a race, they’d just be hiking.
After A-frame we saw challenge volunteers at each of the three remaining mile markers. They were all really nice and supportive, even though we weren’t participating in the event.
I tried to take a selfie with 3 marmots…
The girls were getting pretty tired when we had about 1.5 miles left to go. They were doing great, but lacking a bit in motivation. We made it to the cirque and some volunteers gave them dum-dum lollipops and they were excited once again!
We took a bit of a break at the 16 Golden Stairs. Volunteers from El Paso County Search and Rescue were there, preparing to assess Challenge hikers. We talked for a bit, and they encouraged me to sign up to join EPCSAR. It’s honestly something I’ve been thinking about, but not something I’ll have time for until Emily graduates High School.
On we trekked. This is where my “motivating” the girls kicks in the hardest. Lots of life lessons are learned at this point in the hike. It’s a fine line between encouraging them and making them hate me for making them continue. They told me later I did a great job…lol!
We made it to the summit at 9:59am! That’s just under 7 hours, and a great time for the girls!
They were exhausted, and opted to sit for a while before taking pictures. I asked them if they’d ever done anything harder in their lives, to which Julianna replied (and Lakin agreed): “The only thing harder I can think of is cookie sales”. Spoken like a true Girl Scout! They would know, they take cookie sales seriously! They’ve each sold thousands for years in a row, and know what hard work it can be.
I was proud of them, and told them they could take an extended break. A summit spider joined us for donuts…
It’s really hard to breathe at 14,000+ feet: Your body is working overtime just to breathe, and time can get distorted. When I told the girls we needed to get going because it’d already been 45 minutes they didn’t believe me. They swore it had only been 5-10 minutes. I had to show them the time to convince them!
We took a few summit pictures and began our descent.
Here is where the hike got really fun! The girls were super proud of their accomplishment, and wanted to encourage the Challenge hikers on their way up the mountain. We high-fived ever hiker we saw on the way down, and the girls would shout out words of encouragement: “You got this!" "Trust me, I’ve been in your shoes, just think positively!" "With a positive attitude there’s nothing you can’t do!”
Those girls are amazing! The other hikers thanked them for their enthusiasm, which was much needed at this point in their hike.
When we made it back to the 16 Golden Stairs we were offered more candy. This time I took a Werther’s (an indulgence I haven’t had since I was 12). Instant memories came flooding back. It totally made my day!
About a mile above treeline we had a hiker point and tell us: “See that man in the red jacket? That’s Robert Downey Jr." I was intrigued, but didn’t much believe him. That didn’t stop me from catching up to the man in the red jacket to find out for myself. Unfortunately, it didn’t look much like him: His hair was the right color, but he was a bit overweight and sported full facial hair so I couldn’t much tell if it was him or not.
We said "hello” as we passed him and kept hiking down, enthusiastically high-fiving everyone along the way.
Back at A-frame the man and his kids were still there. It didn’t look like they planned on hiking at all today. Quite a shame for other hikers hoping to snag the A-frame for themselves tonight. There were a lot of hikers around the A-frame, filtering water and milling about before tackling the hardest part of the hike.
We only rested there for about 15 minutes, then once again started hiking down. The girls were practically running at this point (it is MUCH easier to hike down than up). We saw many more hikers there to complete the challenge, all hiking up the mountain. We never saw anyone else hiking down.
We stopped at Barr Camp for another 15 minutes to use the restroom and for a snack. The girls were still all smiles!
For the rest of the hike down the girls kept up a fast pace. They still high-fived everyone they passed, but we didn’t see many more challenge hikers. In fact, the only ones we saw were those returning down the mountain because they weren’t able to summit.
When asked we told hikers we’d hiked all the way to the summit and were on our way down. Everyone was impressed, and one (very fit) woman remarked: “Wow! You all made it? Those girls are more hardcore than I’ll ever be!" The girls took that as quite the compliment!
We made it back down to the parking lot at 3:40pm, and once again the restroom was needed. This time however it was flooded.
Wild Wanderer 