Written by Nancy Hobbs and Richard Bolt. Photos by Richard Bolt.
The Pikes Peak Trekker Expedition kicks off with a meet and greet at the Colorado Running Company in Manitou Springs.
The Colorado non-profit, American Trail Running Association (ATRA), will collecting panoramic images of the entire Barr Trail through a unique project dubbed the Pikes Peak Trekker expedition, which is slated to begin at the end of Ruxton Avenue, in Manitou Springs, Colorado, on Tuesday, August 15, at approximately 8:30 AM.
The event was scheduled during Peak Week, a time to celebrate the 62nd running of the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon, which is held on August 19-20.
Led by ATRA’s Director of Marketing Richard Bolt, the Pike Peak Trekker expedition is comprised of 3 to 4 trail runners who will hike approximately six miles each day for two days (August 15-16), with the 40-pound backpack-mounted camera system overnighting at Barr Camp on Tuesday, August 15. The expedition will be documented with photos and video to be publicized through trailrunner.com and our media partners.
The expedition using Google Map’s backpack-mounted camera system will capture panoramic “street-view” imagery of the Barr Trail, which is the route for the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon course. The resulting imagery will enable fans of the Pikes Peak race to view the entire length of the trail from the comfort of their home, or on the go with any mobile device. Currently only a limited number of people per year have the fitness and privilege to race Pikes Peak; now anyone with a computer can see what the runners see during their journey from Manitou Springs to the 14,115′ mountain summit.
You can meet ATRA’s expedition team and see the trekker backpack at 6PM on Monday, August 14, at the Colorado Running Company’s Manitou Spring location at 513 Manitou Avenue, during a “meet the Trekker Team” complete with a Power Point presentation by Richard Bolt on the Western States Trekker Expedition and details on the Trekker expedition for 2017 which will also include mapping the Incline and a trail or two in the Garden of the Gods Park.
After the Google Maps team has processed the image data, users will be able to view it on ATRA website at trailrunner.com/explore/pikes-peak-trekker/ or on one of our exclusive partner sites.
This project is a follow-up to our successful Western States Trekker project conducted in June 2016 with the Western States 100 Mile Endurance Run in California. The Western States Trekker project page can be found here.
The Trekker will also be on display on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at the Pikes Peak Expo leading up to the Pikes Peak Ascent and Marathon. Come see us at the Expo in Manitou Springs.
Contact for the projects are: Richard Bolt, Nancy Hobbs, and Peter Maksimow.
To learn more about the American Trail Running Association, visit www.trailrunner.com.
