Two and a half weeks late, but here is my report of the COlorado COmmunity Cog Railway Meetup. This was, to put it simply, the highest DKos Meetup EVAH! starting at about 6320 feet and climbing to 14,115 feet. It's also the highest train in the whole northern hemisphere, so it is likely to remain the highest meetup until there's one on an airplane.
Few were brave enough to scale the heights. We had Mr. and Mrs. Colotim, Leftcandid and Cedar Foote. Come on over the squiggle to see some pictures of our adventure.
The Colorado State Open Thread was Wednesday evening and provides some history of Colorado Springs. It served as a fittingly flat place to drive through on the way to Manitou Springs, the starting point for the Cog Railway. Our chariot awaited us.
Now, then, what is a "Cog Railway"? It's actually a train designed to go up and down steep grades - far steeper than a "friction" railway where the friction between the wheels and the train track allows the train to move and hopefully stop. With a cog railway, the central rail of the track, shown here, has a cog wheel in the train which is used to push against this rail with much greater traction (obviously) but is also only used for relatively short distances.
The Cog Railway to the top of Pike's Peak has been carrying people up to the top for 124 years and now goes year around, using special snow plow trains to help them make it during winter (sometimes they even use dynamite to clear snow). Today, however, the weather was perfect. It was in the 70's in Manitou Springs; at the top, with no wind at all, the temperature was 42 degrees. I'll let you enjoy some photos of the trip.
Ruxton Creek along the train route:
Open meadow:
Tantalizing glimpses of the peak:
Excited tourists:
Approaching timberline (in Colorado, about 12,000 feet)
Yellow Bellied Marmot, enjoying some last days of warmth:
Above timberline, looking down over slopes where we would see, from a long distance, a herd of bighorn sheep.
The view from on top - Colorado Springs. Wave to Thanatokephaloides down there. He was waving up at us (I think).
Some were more adventuresome than others:
Unfortunately, there was a large amount of smoke and haze in the air. We hadn't had any rain in September, so the views were somewhat hazy over the purple mountains majesty, the spacious skies, etc. I still think Kathy Lee Bates would still be inspired to write "America the Beautiful" from the top here. The thin air did affect me - I've lived in Colorado for over 20 years, so I'm acclimated, but all of us were moving slowly and I could feel my heart working harder to get the oxygen circulated through my system. I was glad to have transport up and down - I sure wouldn't want to hike it, as some people were doing.
The fall colors in Colorado were on display during the journey - as we went up in elevation, we passed through different zones, from late summer -
to beautiful fall -
.
Three of us (Mrs. Colotim chose to sit out this selfie) on the train at the summit:
We look forward to more meetups - ideas are welcome for where and when to meet.