The mountain is restless

There are many in the region, particularly woodsy Manitou types, but also a few secular, skeptical reporters, who feel Pikes Peak has a spirit, a presence, a personality with many moods. This isn't exactly unique to Pikes Peak. People have been assigning consciousness to mountains for a long time. I remember getting a coca-chewing lesson from a Quechuan Indian in the Andes. He showed me how to start each chewing session by holding holding three leaves spread out like a fan (one for the condor, one for the snake, and one for the puma) and then, in a sort of "cheers" saying the name of the closest spiritual being. In this case it was a 20,900-foot peak called Ausangate.

Anyway, the mood of Pikes Peak right now is a little unsettled. I ran Barr Trail Wednesday and saw that two huge boulders had come tumbling down, low on the trail, and smashed several spots in the wooden rails along the path to match sticks. This happened sometime in the last three days, as I was on Barr on Sunday, and saw nothing. Other boulders have come down in the same area in the past few months. One of them is blocking the trail about a mile up. It could be soft, moist soils giving way, or it could be old Tava grumbling.