Colorado Springs.

27^th June.

 

Mummy to be

Before packing up and heading for our next site we had coffee and watched one of the little ground squirrels, of which there are many in this part of the world (and most of them look pregnant).  It was a very adorable creature and posed for the camera.

Our next camp ground, South Meadows, is in the Pike National Forest near Woodland Park.  It was lovely in the shade of the pine trees overlooking the ponds created by the Beaver dams just below in the valley.  This camp site is about 15 miles from Pike’s Peak Mountain where the International Hill Climb was being held on 30^th June 2013 for the 91^st time.

All week competitors had been doing practice runs in the early morning up the mountain in preparation for their final race on Sunday.  The Fan Fest was being held in the evening in Downtown Colorado Springs so we headed down there late afternoon.

Several streets were closed off for spectators to get up close to see the vehicles competing in the PPIHC 2013.  Motor bikes, cars, including electric ones were on display.  Quad bikes and Trucks too.  The Fire-fighters who support the event were holding a chilli-tasting event too.

Sebastian Loeb, nine times winner of the World Rally Championships including 2012, was there with Peugeot (car No 208 naturally), for his first attempt at the Race to the Clouds.  An essential photo opportunity for Alison! (computer issues prevent download).

John Edwards Parton

We spotted a yellow mini with a map of the route on the roof (car 199).  It was being driven by John Edwards-Parton from UK and we chatted with him and his wife Margaret for quite a while.  Margaret was convinced she recognised Alison from work related activities – it is a small world!

Mark Rennison

We also chatted to Mark Rennison (car 200) again over from UK with a Ford RS 200 Evolution.



 

We watched sky divers come down right into the middle of the street.  They came down so quickly it was scary.  About 10 minutes later we realised why – the heavens opened!  We had lightening, thunder and torrential rain and everyone dived for cover into the shops and under exhibitors’ marques. That put an end to the evening.

28^th June. Pike’s Peak Highway.

We wanted to see the course before the race so we drove up the Pike’s Peak Highway.  The road is 19 miles long from the Tollgate entrance (you have to pay $12 each to drive up) and you get your first view of the Peak at mile 3.  It ascends from 7800ft up to the summit at 14115ft.  The average speed limit is 25mph.  There are 3 reservoirs between miles 6 and 7; mile 7 is the PPIHC race start line.

Before

Devil's Playground

There were many other cars on the road and we drove the steady climb up to the summit in glorious sunshine stopping for a picnic lunch at Glen Cove, mile 13.  At the summit, mile 19, we had lovely  views and saw the cog railway train coming up from Manitou Springs.

After

However within 10 minutes of getting to the top, the mountain was encased in cloud and a storm settled over the Peak.  A Ranger stood at the doorway of the Shop/Restaurant advising people to stay indoors out of the lightning.  We had rain, fog, hail, thunder and lightning at eye level.  Once you get above 11500ft, you get above tree level and a human is the highest standing thing for lightning to strike.  Devils playground is above the tree level, at 12780ft, and is given its name because lightning has been known to hit the ground and then spread around.  We made a mental note of this and decided to stay below the tree-line when spectating tomorrow.
 

Our journey back down was uneventful, however we had missed the best photo opportunities as there was too much cloud cover.

30^th June. PPIHC - Race day

We left the camp site at 4.20am and joined the queue of spectators at the base of the mountain by 4.40am.  It then took 2 hours to drive 9 miles to ‘Halfway Picnic’ car park.  There are several parking areas and if you want view points from the higher vantage areas you need to get there when the gates open at 3am. 
 

Pikes Peak in background

Laden with our ‘stuff’ we then walked up to ‘Brown Bush Corner’ an interesting hairpin bend at around mile 10.5 at 10000ft.  We settled ourselves into a nice view point for the day, with the sun shining down on our Union Jack Flag which we set up in a vantage point to support our fellow UK competitors, and waited for the fun to start.

The course is 12.42 miles, with 156 bends, the start line is at 9390ft, and the finish line is at 14110ft.  This year they have finally completed paving the top section of the road, as up until now some parts of the last couple of miles had been dirt track and consequently affected the speed vehicles could tackle the hill-climb.



Odd 3 wheeler

First up, at 8.30am, were the motorbikes.  There were nine different classes including electric bikes (they had to have sirens so that people could hear them coming), sidecars and quads.  Unfortunately 3 bikers came off before they got to our corner.  Two were walking wounded but one had to be air-lifted to hospital. 
We had expected the bikes to come back down the hill before the cars started but this was not to be.

Sebastian Loeb

Sebastian Loeb was first car off the start line and flew up setting a new course record of 8.13.8mins.  A nearby spectator had a radio so we could hear the news.

There was a break between Loeb and the next cars starting the race.  There were seven car classes  including electric cars and of course The Truck! (a huge great Freightliner, but not quite standard road going.)

Pat Doran trying to de-camp

At lunch time the weather began to change.  We had rain and sleet on and off for the rest of the day.  Higher up we understand the snow began to settle and fog reduced visibility!  All afternoon this caused delays whilst they waited for conditions to improve before starting the cars.  Fortunately the weather was changeable and when the sun came out the track dried quickly. 
 

All the accidents seem to happen in the first couple of miles from the start.  One of the electric cars came off and the battery caught fire, again the air ambulance was called into action; this created another hour’s delay.  During this time we decamped from our vantage point and went back down to watch from the area where we had parked the car.

The last vehicles came through at around 5.30pm.  Shortly after that all the competitors came back down from the mountain.  People lined up to “High 5” the competitors as they came past slowly – it was really a great atmosphere.  We stood with our Flag and all the UK competitors acknowledged us by stopping next to us.  It finished the event on a ‘high’ for us.

Then we waited ……. and waited …… and waited …. for the other spectators from the top of the mountain to come past us so that we could get out of our car park.  It took an hour and a half before we actually moved.  We then joined the queue of traffic back down the mountain, which took over an hour to reach the public road.  We eventually got home just after 10pm and had a very good night’s sleep!

1st July. Recovery Day.

After yesterday’s excitement we spent the day recovering and relaxing in the campsite updating the blog etc.  We had a walk around the Beaver dams in between the rain showers in the afternoon. 

2nd July Back to Cheyenne

We have had rain every day since we arrived at Woodland Park and discovered the awnings, that we had replaced over the slide-outs on the RV, were not satisfactory so we arranged to return to the RV Repair garage in Cheyenne for them to re-do the work.  On the way we drove down past Manitou Springs and learnt that the rain that night had caused a mudslide creating a road block and some houses and an RV park had to be evacuated.

Bev's friend Grace

Bev on Rocky

Back up the I-25 past Denver.
Once we had parked up at the campsite behind the garage we went into town to see Bev and friends riding their horses in preparation for Frontier Days Rodeo, when some of them will be involved with the Parades.