Its the end of October and I have plumbing! Or at least pipe. No water or fixtures on either end of the pipe but it is enough to pass my plumbing inspection. That gives me until next October to pass another inspection to keep my permit active. I hope to not wait that long but it is nice to have the breathing room. The cabin is almost done with electrical wiring except for a couple outlets in the cellar. I have even seen the lights come on upstairs. There is still some solar setup and configuration before I can schedule that inspection but it is close but the rainy weather makes it touch and go for the road being open for the inspector to get in. I’ll just putter on the electrical over the next couple of months and be ready in May.
The good thing abut this time of the year is it still warm-ish and the sun goes down early. I can still watch for cool stuff in the night sky and still get to bed at a reasonable hour without freezing my extremities off. October was busy too. It started with another Northern Lights show. It was pretty dim for the naked eye but with the magic of long exposure, I was able to get capture a good timelapse with my phone. It is posted on my youtube channel.
I don’t have a clear view to the west because of the trees. Exactly where the pleasantly named C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) comet was supposed to be visible just after sunset. I ended up driving an hour over to the desert on a balmy fall night to see if I could see it. It was another faint one and could not see it. I didn’t want to waste the warm cloudless night and the long drive over so I just pointed my phone with a long exposure to the west and just started clicking. Even with long exposure it was barely visible. I am gad I saw it but really glad I didn’t have to sit out in the cold for it.
Since the pressure is off for an inspection, I decided to take a few days off and take a fall road trip to see what’s left of some fall color and enjoy a little pain and misery. A couple of years ago, almost to the date, I was in Colorado with time to kill. I decided to take my second run at the Manitou Springs Incline climb. It is almost 2800 steps up the side of a mountain. It starts at 6500 ft above sea level and ends 2000 ft higher. The first time I climbed it was back in 2016 and you can read about that effort here. It took me 1:28 to get up the incline. Two years ago it took me a little longer at 1:33 as described here.
The main goal this year, besides not dying. was to stay within a few minutes of that last time. Being a data nerd, I wanted to do the climb exactly 2 years later so that it would be a good comparison. The mountain weather gods didn’t really care about my goals based on the winter weather warnings I was listening to on the drive there. No time for fall foliage tourism if I didn’t want to get blocked by snow. rain and other excuses that would let be back out of the climb when I got there. I needed to cover 1400 miles in 2 days to beat the weather. I wasn’t sure if even I could cover that distance so quickly. In the rush I forgot to reserve my spot. To manage the crowds ( Yes, crowds of people do this), the limit the climbers to 70 per hour. Over a egg McMuffin meal (Only afterward did I question the wisdom of McDonald’s food on a crowded 3 hour trail with no rest rooms), I went online to reserve my spot, The next open spot was after lunch.
I am usually a rule follower and figured I would just bide my time. The weather was threatening so I figured I would see if I could sneak on. Manitou Springs is a very small town with limited parking. Nothing free for tourists and there are a lot of tourists. My first plan was that I would just bite the bullet and get an expensive all day parking spot and do the climb when I could. I did find an all day parking spot for the low low price of $2 and a mile walk to the trail head. I think Colorado people are either very chill or too stoned to care because there was no one at the gate checking reservations. Just clicked my smart watch and headed up.
The climb is just a grind. The steps are old unevenly spaced railroad ties from an earlier incline train that has since been moved to another spot on the mountainside. I didn’t really start feeling bad until I was about 1/3rd of the way up. That when the slope starts to steepen and you can hold onto the railroad ties like ladder rungs. That’s when you see who is who. You’ll pass or in my case, get passed by fit folks, not so fit, families, old people and kids. Some people (the regulars) just bounce right up them. Some people spend time “enjoying the scenery” between steps (me). Some people just crawl up them.
There is a sign about 1’2 way up that says there still 1000 steps to go and it is only going to get worse. There is no shame in bailing out at the next turnoff. And there is a little voice getting bigger trying to get you to agree. But stubborn beats wisdom every time and I ignored the chest pains of my heart trying to figure out where all the oxygen went and kept get climbing. I didn’t really ignore it, I just sat down every four or five steps to “enjoy the scenery”.
Finally I made it to the false summit and could finally see the top. I was hoping seeing the end would speed steps but it was mostly the opposite. Just dealing with one big UGH!!! I was pretty happy when at 1:35 (just 50 seconds slower than 2 years ago), I climbed the last step to resounding cheers, champagne and hugs and kisses from hot chicks. Just kidding, that is just what I tell myself to keep putting one foot in front of the other. There is nothing. Just a few folks milling around waiting for their scenery loving climbing companions. The predicted storms were threatening with a few drops and there was still an hour needed to get back down. You are not supposed to but there are some people who hate their knees enough to take the stairs back down. I like my knees very much so I took the winding trail to the bottom, finishing just in time to beat the cold steady rain that settled in for my rush hour drive from the Southside of Denver to its far North end. About 3 hours before I finally broke through the gridlock.
At the bottom |
The climb ahead |
Half way |
Success!! |
It was a pretty silly waste of time to drive through Denver at rush hour but driving west through the mountains with a winter storm rolling in seemed sillier. Plus my time in gridlock was rewarded by a stop at the newest Buc-ees in the country. Hard to describe a truck stop that doesn’t allow trucks. A t-shirt shop that sells gas. A 7-11 with a BBQ restaurant. All Texas sized. Its pretty fun. I have mostly given up on Walmarts for my car camping endeavors. Highway rest stops have been working pretty well as long as you can park away from the overnight truckers running their generators. Generally they are far enough from larger cities that the urban rot doesn’t make it that far out. Not true in Fort Collins. I pulled into the one there but there was a 2 hour limit except for the homeless folks who have set up camp. I can pass for homeless on any given day when I am on the road but I didn’t want to push my luck. I ended up parking among the over night stock crew’s cars at the nearby Home Depot.
The rest of the trip was just driving west. Very uneventful. Mostly thinking about all the things I need to do to get things closed up for the year. No new projects.
October is winding down as cold, dark and wet. Rubber boots caked in mud, sleeping in my coat and wondering if the solar power will keep the lights on until I can get out of here. Stay tuned to see how November goes. In the meantime, I have to go to my scouting for the half-price halloween candy sale tomorrow.
