At least it wasn't raining constantly in Manitou Spgs while I was there, just brief, very intense showers whenever I stepped outside my hotel room.
There was this crazy dog, just hanging out on the roof of this auto-shop in Manitou, while the lowly, filthy humans toiled below in his domain.


I had a little time to kill until UPS brought my bike the next day, so I decided to hike up Barr Trail. Such a beautiful place!

There was a LOT of new growth, young trees, and even ASPENS growing at the treeline, where there used to be just mangled, dead trunks.

This young tree was actually coiling vine-like around this trunk...

Don't know if it's evidence of global warming, but there certainly weren't this many aspens when I used to come here 20 years ago. Bizarre, since I read somewhere a few months ago that all the aspens were dying, which was supposed to be a symptom of climate change. Maybe they're just shifting into a different ecosphere?

Either way, I was really just looking for that magic place above the treeline where the incline steepens...


And the oxygen gets scarcer & scarcer. You can't really tell from this pic, but my fingernails were fairly yellowish-green, and my hands had puffed up something fierce.

Made it to the top in 5:25, despite noodling along and enjoying the view.