Pikes Peak
07/03/2009 09:49 p.m.
I feel like I'm on the brink of an American ritual: I'm taking the cog railway up Pikes Peak. Somewhere in the back of my Lincoln School mind, I remember a teacher describing this--probably Mrs. Kay--she was well traveled for that time. I've ridden on a cog train up Mt. Pilatus twice; I've climbed a nearly 13,000 foot Teton twice. I've been through the Colorado Rockies by automobile a couple of times too, and yet the e xpectation of this ascent up Pikes Peak seems to hold a special "O, Beautiful for Spacious Skys" anticipation--as I said before--"an American ritual." I do it for me, and partly for those who did it before me, and certainly for those whom I will tell about afterward . . . .