A few weeks ago, I took a trip down to Manitou Springs to do the Manitou Incline—a 2,744-step hike that covers less than a mile of horizontal distance, making it famously steep. The average grade is 45%, with some sections reaching as high as 68%. By the time you reach the top, you’ve climbed more than 2,000 feet in elevation.

I had never heard of this hike before I did it. When I got invited to go, I looked it up and thought it sounded “fun.” That may have been  an ignorant thought.

I’m not going to sugarcoat it—this hike kicked my butt. We started around 2:30 and didn’t make it back down to town until a little after 6:00. The full loop took way longer than we anticipated. While this hike fully humbled me, I was still the first in our group to reach the top (booyah). I did it in 68 minutes, while most of my friends made it up in about an hour and 45 minutes—which is still well within the average time frame.

We took a lot of breaks, and on some stretches, we could only manage 10–15 steps before needing to stop again. It’s a strange experience—it’s just as much a mental challenge as it is a physical one. The phases you go through (or at least the ones I went through) go something like this:

Starting off strong and fast with little to no breaks, okay I’m tired let’s stop, you think we’re halfway there? No, we're definitely not halfway there, how does anybody do this, okay we are doing more breaking than we are hiking, are we still not halfway? Oh my god look how steep this section is that must be the top, oh it’s actually the halfway point, I think I’m dying, I need to stop literally every 10 steps, okay I’m hitting the 1,600-step mark, let’s slow my pace way down, ok I found my second wind, oh I made it to the top??

That was a long, silly (yet accurate) way to say that you start strong, you get tired, you get REALLY tired, then you find your second wind, and before you know it, you’ve made it to the top, and when you get to the top, you feel incredible. Or at least I did. It was like a head high. I felt like I was at war for the last hour and finally reached a quiet, peaceful summit.

Of course, while reaching the summit is rewarding, it takes a massive toll on your body. Your legs, lungs, toes, back, and what was probably the least expected toll it took on my body was it made me feel like I was catching a cold. This kicked in on the drive back. Some of us in the group felt this and some didn’t. One thing that was consistent amongst all of us though, was the runny nose. It’s like we all had  bad allergies for about the next 24 hours. I nearly blew my nose raw from the amount of tissues I went through.

The shuttle ride back was quiet besides the scattered sniffling you heard throughout the cabin. We requested a stop in town to grab some ice cream at the famous Pikes Peak Chocolate & Ice Cream, however on our walk there, we heard live music and naturally gravitated toward that. There was a band performing on the patio of Townhouse Sports Grill. We stopped in for a bite and a beer and hung out on the patio to check out the band. This stop is such an important aspect of our trip to Manitou Springs because of this one secret gem this restaurant offers: one FREE beer IF you can show them a picture of yourself at the top of the incline. An absolute game changer; I will be back for that next time.

Getting back into Denver, legs weak, ears ringing, and cold-shiver flashbacks from any stairs we spotted out the car window, we popped the shoes off, took a shower, and slept for the next 10 hours. Later that night and into the next day, we felt totally back to normal; no runny nose or cold shivers. While my friends got their fill in for the year, I was already planning my trip back.

If you like to get outside, challenge yourself, and drink free beer, you should plan a trip down to Manitou Springs! It can be a lot, but it can also be a lot of fun.