the incline

It's Tuesday and what would be better than to climb and enormous incline up a mountain? You can see it from a couple miles away. Railroad ties are driven into the side of the mountain with large spikes for us to use as steps. There is a lot of loose gravel so you have to watch your step.



This is at the very first step. We are mentally preparing ourselves for the climb. Sara decided to be a pedometer, so she counted as she climbed. She said counting took her mind off the intensity.



We are half way up. Breaks were our friend...

...Speaking of friends, here's one we made on the climb, sitting next to Sara. His name is Robert and we joined efforts in reaching the top.

Looking back, this is half to the top. My fear of heights kicked in when I turned around, so I didn't do it often!

Almost to the top!

We made it! View from the top!

We took another switchback trail down to the parking lot. This was the scenery along the way. God creates amazing scenery!

We met a man in his 50's/60's who ran to the top of the incline. He said his best time was 21:04 to the top and that was back in 2004. Today, he did it in 30 minutes because he fractured his vertibrae and it has lowered his time significantly. To put this in perspective, it took us 1 hour (although we did take 4 breaks). We nick-named him "21-minute-man". Impressed, I was!