*Note: This audio essay first aired on KRCC (Colorado Springs’ NPR affiliate, 91.5 FM) on August 19, 2021. The link to the program is here; the audio file and the text from the essay are below. Even the Pikes Peak Marathon’s greatest champion, Matt Carpenter, has been brought to his knees by the mountain. His first Ascent race…
*Note: This audio essay first aired on KRCC (Colorado Springs’ NPR affiliate, 91.5 FM) on August 12, 2021. The link to the program is here; the audio file and the text from the essay are below. The first official race to the top of Pikes Peak was on June 28, 1936. 27 started the nearly 13 mile-race up the…
*Note: This audio essay first aired on KRCC (Colorado Springs’ NPR affiliate, 91.5 FM) on August 5, 2021. The link to the program is here; the audio file and the text from the essay are below. When snow turned him back from the first recorded American attempt to climb Pikes Peak, Zebulon Pike wrote, “I believe no human…
*Note: This audio essay first aired on KRCC (Colorado Springs’ NPR affiliate, 91.5 FM) on July 29, 2021. The link to the program is here; the audio file and the text from the essay are below. It’s not hard to find. In fact, there’s a marker, a relatively plain one, at the southeast corner of Pikes Peak and Cascade…
*Note: This audio essay first aired on KRCC (Colorado Springs’ NPR affiliate, 91.5 FM) on July 22, 2021. The link to the program is here; the audio file and the text from the essay are below. The next time you find yourself on a bridge or a path, I’d like to encourage you to look down and appreciate…
*Note: This essay was published in the Salt Lake City Tribune print edition on July 18, 2021. The text of the essay is included below. My house is empty and I have Salt Lake City to blame for that. As a career military officer, stationed near Colorado Springs, you’d think I’d be used to my family being away. But with…
*Note: This audio essay first aired on KRCC (Colorado Springs’ NPR affiliate, 91.5 FM) on July 15, 2021. The link to the program is here; the audio file and the text from the essay are below. U.S. Route 85 is a nearly 1,500-mile-long highway that runs through El Paso, Texas, to New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, South Dakota and through Fortuna,…
*Note: This audio essay first aired on KRCC (Colorado Springs’ NPR affiliate, 91.5 FM) on July 8, 2021. The link to the program is here; the audio file and the text from the essay are below. There’s a tall, tall turtle in the Garden of the Gods, and I’d like to tell you a story about it. But…
*Note: This audio essay first aired on KRCC (Colorado Springs’ NPR affiliate, 91.5 FM) on July 1, 2021. The link to the program is here; the audio file and the text from the essay are below. A few years ago, I was standing in Memorial Park in Manitou Springs when I noticed this enormous rock in the middle…
*Note: This audio essay first aired on KRCC (Colorado Springs’ NPR affiliate, 91.5 FM) on June 24, 2021. The link to the program is here; the audio file and the text from the essay are below. Guts, smarts, and money. Those three things helped make the cog rail in Manitou Springs happen. The guts came from a Civil…