Every Bit The Journey

The journey of a thousand miles begins with the first step, and this is mine.

Montana Mountains

Tag: hiking

Stone Stacking – Spiritually Art or Criminal Mischief?

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On August 19, 2017

In Life

This year I’ve read several different posts and articles about artful rock stacking, the most recent showed up in my news feed a week or so ago. This seems to be a hugely sensitive topic, bringing out strong emotional responses from people. Most lamented about how terrible, destructive, and sometimes criminal this practice is and how it messes with nature. Generally these types of posts seem to put out a lot of negative feelings towards the stone stacker. After reading this last post, I said to myself, “Really? just use some common sense people.” But I guess that’s part of the problem. At the end, the writer sums up a basic truth, “Most people are simply unaware that their actions are disturbing the natural environment.” Yet, I am left to wonder, is there a time and a place for such things?

I think one of the biggest issues with people is they don’t understand things any more. I’m sure you’ve heard some variation of a story about a person complaining because some people eat animals and how horrible and cruel it is to eat animals and people should just go to the grocery store for their meat because that’s where they make it. Yep. One of the jobs I had involved helping customers in a home improvement center. From my experience there, I can not tell you the number of people who walk in with an internet project idea they want to recreate, but have no idea how to stick two pieces of wood together. Seriously. Some have never picked up a tool and want to build a massive home project and are asking me “how do I do this?” Quite endearing. I try to help the best I can but the point is, I think people see these artful images of stacked stones and it invokes needed feelings of tranquility in them. So the next time they are out communing with nature, they get this urge to stack stones, maybe thinking it will enhance their experience. Little do they realize the sometimes negative impact of what they are doing. I think maybe, some folks see rock balancing as a zen form of self therapy. The others who proliferate a stream with their work are probably just a bit egocentric.

The reality is rock balancing can be inspirational when done appropriately. But this is a very, very, narrow window of opportunity. And from most of what I’ve seen, this level of “art” usually falls into the “cute – but stop it” department. Not to be too harsh about it, but trying to impressing others with your ability to pile rocks really isn’t how it works. To me, there is a more organic or deeper feeling and turning over a river bed to fill it with balancing rocks simply isn’t it. Seriously, please use some common sense folks. Walk softly, take pictures, enjoy nature, please leave the rocks alone. Sigh, with the Leave No Trace issues aside, I think to disrupt a pristine (or any level of use) wilderness area with this fad is just dumb at best, and criminal at worst. I really don’t need to (or want to) see it to enhance my out door experience, thank you.

Yet, every once in a great while, something surprises me. Recently on a day hike through the Narrows and Virgin River in the Zion National Park, I came across a stack of stones which caught me by surprise. Now you must understand, this section of the Virgin river in the Zion National Park is visited by hundreds and hundreds of people every day. All walking in the river bed as far as they can, and then back. The impact on the river is to turn over ever stone and stir the sand for several miles. This explains the silted look of the water down stream. There is no low impact aspect in this massively popular and amazing natural attraction, especially within the first several miles of the walk up river. Anyway, there were actually dozens of stone stacks in various parts of the canyon, some where done on sand bars, some even on the larger boulders. All definitely in the above previously mentioned “cute” category.

But yet, there was this one stack. It was a small, almost tiny” single stack of stones, set peacefully in a green, almost hidden, corner of a canyon wall. I was completely caught off guard by this total exception to everything I have just said about the general nature of stacked stones. And it should not have been there. The act was in all likely hood absolutely prohibited by park regulations under the “don’t mess with stuff” clause. But yet in the chaos of the hundreds of tourist stomping up and down the stream, it provided me a surprising balance to the activities around me. Absolutely and totally inappropriate, but yet somehow perfect. Almost sacred.

As I said, I guess I pull a deeper meaning from such things, so you just can’t pile rocks and have magic. In some cases, the custom of adding a stone at a memorial or grave marker is the same thing. Leaving a stone at a grave or someone’s marker, which I have done, sometimes ends up making randomly built small stacked carins or balance stones. For me these carry a special meaning. they say “I was here, I saw you, I remember you.” All along the Appalachian Trail, there are graves and markers for people who have either died or been buried in the mountains. One of the very first ones I remember coming across was in North Carolina. Hiking along the trail, it surprised me. It was just there, On a small foundation, build on the side of a hill, in the middle of seemingly nowhere, is a small bronze marker for Wade A. Sutton. It simply states he was a forest ranger who died fighting a fire “so you might more fully enjoy your hike along this trail.” I left a stone. I will continue to leave stones. Maybe the small stones, carefully balancing in the quiet, green, hidden in a corner of a busy canyon, were for me, telling me “I saw you here, I remember you.”

I do think about this stone thing, it’s such a precarious fragile thing. It’s a fool’s errand to think you can simply stack stones for others to appreciate. They will not. It is the stones not stacked by others which are most appreciated.

stones

just a stack of stones

Pike’s Peak – My first 14er

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On August 10, 2017

In Life, Travel

Two years ago I set a goal for myself to hiking Pike’s Peak. This past week I completed this goal hiking to 14,115 feet, summiting Pike’s Peak, and claiming my first “14er.”

When I first saw Pike’s Peak a couple years ago, I was enchanted by the amazing views of the mountain. Once I learned there were hiking trails to the summit I declared I wanted to hike to the summit. While you can, I didn’t want to simply drive to the peak. What fun is that? For some silly reason I thought hiking to the peak was more in line with the idea of the personal challenge I felt I needed at the time. So from conception, the idea was to hike to the summit. Fortunately for me, my three children (and their dear spouses) were all very supportive and offered to go with me on this adventure as well. Fast forward to August 2nd 2017 and now everything’s a “go.”

With all of the planning, scheduling, re-scheduling, and logistics of getting six people from two coasts to the same spot at the same time aside, I was very pleased we all arrived at our agreed upon predawn time at the Crags Trail-head on the West side of the mountain. As we all pulled in to the parking lot together, I was so excited and happy my family was hiking with me. I might even have been a little misty-eyed, but it was dark so no one will ever know. The early morning was chilly as we all hugged, chatted, and quickly donned our gear, made our final hiking preparations and last bathroom calls.

Our objective for the day was to hike up to Pike’s Peak, seven miles away and 4,110 higher than our starting elevation of 10,005 feet, and then hike back down. For gear, everyone had the basically the same or similar elements of their own. Everyone had some sort of day pack ranging from 20 to 40 liter size to carry extra layers of clothing, rain gear, trail snacks, 4 liters of water each, and between us the usually ancillary essential hiking items like flashlights, first-aid kits, maps, compass, etc. We hit the trail together just a few minutes after 6 A.M.

The Crags Trail leaves the parking lot and snakes into the woods for a short distance where the “664A” trail to the Devil’s Playground (and Pike’s Peak) spurs off and heads up through the tall pines and aspen trees. The morning is cool and with the newness of the trail, the hiking is fairly easy through this section. Generally the trail is a mix of straight incline and switchbacks. As we climb, the trees get progressively shorter and shorter as we hiked higher and higher. Watching the tall pines shrinking as we climbed helped mark our progress. The short stubby trees started to give way to grassy meadows. Somewhere around 11,500 and 12,000 feet the trees simply stopped. In this transition area we lost the trail for a moment (I think we zigged when we should have zagged) and dead-ended in an old camp site. After a couple minutes we were able to regain the trail in the grassy meadows above the treeline.

We followed the trail as it continued up through the grass meadows dotted with yellow and blue wildflowers. Once we had cleared the treeline the hiking became noticeable more difficult, the trail a little steeper and the air a little thinner. As the trail finally seemed to level off a little near 12,500 feet, we took our first break and rested a bit. Looking back over from where we had just hiked up were amazing views. The sky was clear and blue, the morning sun shining on the Crags to the North and other rock formations around us to the South. The view of the valley and the countryside to the West below us was breathtaking.

Rejuvenated from our break, we hiked on. The grassy meadows yielding more and more to simply small patches of sparse tundra. Eventually even the tundra simply fades away to just rock. The climb leveling off as we entered into the Devil’s Playground area. Apparently this area is so named due to “the way lightening jumps from rock to rock during a thunderstorm.” Awesome. I did not expect that. I was thinking more along the lines of “oh, rocks. The devil likes rocks.” Not “oh, dancing lighting.” Did I mention we were trying to summit prior to a forecasted rain storm?

Hiking on we passed through the huge rock formations, now within sight of the peak, I can even make out one of the buildings on top of the mountain. Because of the lack of vegetation now, the trail is hard to follow. Cairns start marking the way. Map check. It’s about 11:30 A.M., we’ve made really good time and are so close now. Literally within a quarter mile of the top. And 800 feet up. 800 feet up this huge rock & boulder incline. This huge rock & boulder incline with no discernible path. That’s not really true. There is a path. And it is marked with cairns. The problem is the stacks of rocks marking the path are made with the same rocks as the rock & boulder incline & mountain are made with, so it’s a little hard to see the path beyond the next cairn. The thin air helps make progress slow. Every step is a climb up the rocks. The exertion requires me to pause every couple of steps to try to pull more air into my lungs. As we are climbing this last painful piece, the sky is building up around us in preparation for the day’s forcasted storm. So there is this extra motivation to get to the peak before the dark clouds around us open up. We slowly pick our way, up through the boulder field, as fast as we can and make summit around 1:30 P.M., just ahead of the weather unloading. Still trying to catch my breath as I hobble over to the visitor center building for shelter, it starts snowing, hailing, and raining, with lightning and thunder beginning as we ducked into the building.

Sitting in the visitor center bathed in the afterglow of success (or maybe it was hypoxia?), was a little surreal. It is storming outside, snow and sleet and rain and lightening and thunder, and I’m panting like a fish out of water after my climb, I’m watch the seeming hundreds of tourist folk who had either drove or rode to the top as they scampered about talking and eating and acting as if everything is normal, like they were thousands of feet lower. I finally get enough air in me to enjoy one of Pike’s Peaks famous donuts and refill my water bladders in preparation for our hike back down once the storm passes.

Rested a bit, the main storm has ended and the sun is peeked through the clouds swirling around us. Now to hike back down. Leaving the visitors center, we start retracing our path down the mountain. Getting sprinkled with sporadic rain and sleet, we descended back down through the wet boulder field. We are able to get through this downhill piece pretty quickly, but this was probably the most dangerous section we encountered of the trip. Both my oldest son and I fell in the tricky rocks. My other son opted to hike around the boulder field along the road (he might have been the smarter of the group), but was informed by a ranger doing so was illegal. The rest of the descent went fairly smoothly and quickly. Tired, with sore feet, and with few bumps and bruises, we all came off the trail together just a few minutes after 7 p.m. Absolutely epic awesome and I would do it all again. We completed the round trip in 13 hours total, covering about 14 miles total, all of us earning and claiming our first 14er summit. Standing on top of my first 14er with my family, it was quite the journey.

The tundra along the trail to Pikes Peak
The new 14er hikers, all finished safe and mostly sound

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Seven Falls practice hike

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On August 1, 2017

In Travel

for our first full day in Colorado Springs

Today our big adventure is a practice hike at Broadmoor’s Seven Falls at the eastern edge of the Pike National Forest in the South Cheyenne Canyon area.

The thought of a practice hike is a great idea. It helps work out some of the kinks from traveling, shakes out the gear a bit, and makes you ask yourself “do I have everything I need?” It also helps when hiking with as new group to figure out each others pace and styles, and helps you ask yourself again “do I have everything I need?” I tend to pack a bit minimally and am always wondering if I have the right gear for the hike. 

The trail we picked to hike is a place called Seven Falls. It’s a relatively small privately owned park but the falls are spectacular. I learned later, the falls originally opened as an attraction in the early 1880’s. Most recently, when the property was severely damaged in a 2013 flood, it was purchased by a resort company and restored. They made a number of improvements and and reopened in 2015.  One of the improvements was to move visitor parking off site and provide a free shuttle service which reduces on site traffic congestion. The shuttle which picked us up and carried us to the park entrance. The shuttle and park services seemed well run, the park and trails were clean and well maintained. On the day of our visit there were probable several hundred people there coming and going while we were there, yet generally it didn’t seem crowded. there are several things to see and do and a number of trails to explore. We picked the longest hiking route we could, up to Inspiration Point. I think we would have hiked more if it hadn’t been for the rain.  

Once we ticketed in, the first part of our hike is an easy walk of just under a mile from the entrance to the base of falls at the head of the box canyon. As you follow South Cheyenne Creek to the falls there are several named rock outcroppings along the way, some as high as 1000 feet above the canyon floor. At the base of the falls there is and observation area around the collecting pool and a staircase to the top of the falls. The water fall cascades down several tiers, dropping 181 feet from the top. We climb the 244 steps in a set of open stair up to the top of the falls. This is the one time the place seemed a little crowded. The stairs are no wider than a normal stair maybe a couple feet wide (three feet tops) but open as in you can see the canyon and falls between the stair treads and between the handrails. It looks really cool, but can be a little “holy crap” about the time you realize it too late to quit. As you are ascending, gripping the hand rails, trying to not look down too much, focusing on the next step, there are people descending doing the same thing. and when passing each other, everyone wants to be in the center of the stairs. Fortunately we didn’t have the same problem later when we were descending, in the rain, and with the lightning. 

Once at the top of the falls there are a number of trails heading off in different directions, we picked the trail to Inspiration Point and hiked on. From the top of the falls you are in the 6800 foot elevation range. I think our original plan was to spend a few hours here hiking several of the trails here. Sometimes things don’t go quite the way you plan. Hiking out past the canyon Overlook point and to Inspiration Point is only a little better than a half mile has some nice honest inclines to get your heart rate up and sweat going. We reached the Overlook point and were provided with an awesome view of the canyon area and a peek of view looking over the city, you just know the view of Colorado Springs will be better at Inspiration Point, we can even see some approaching afternoon rains. We move on with purpose now knowing we may have a little less hiking time than previously planed.

Helen Hunt Jackson, 19th century poet and writer, was originally buried at Inspiration Point, reportedly it was one of her favorite spots to write, inspired by the views and beauty of the area. So of course, despite imminent rain and distant thunder, it makes perfect sense to get at least to her marker. Just as the rain started.

One of the reasons for a practice hike is to discover what gear works and what gear you don’t have. Like zip-lock bags. Sounds like a little thing, but they are really great for keeping things like cell phones and cameras dry in case of rain. That way you don’t need to use your rain shell to wrap up said cell phones and cameras to keep them dry, and I can wear my rain shell instead of my phone and camera.

The hike down went very well. We made good time. We paused at a shelter packed with people only long enough to allow the rain to increase a bit. The second shelter we passed was overflowing. At this point we are committed to hiking down off the mountain as purposefully as possible, with the occasional  not-so-far lightening and corresponding thunder clap motivating us along the way. Interestingly here, when we started this trek, our group was the only few people in the part with hiking poles, day packs of water & gear, hiking shoes, etc. so some of the comments overheard from passersby might have been less than complementary. The general exception was related to envious comments about hike poles during passing on the previously mentioned “nice honest inclines.” Now the huddles masses with Birkenstock sandals, sneakers, and no jackets or rain gear, had more complementary words as we hiked past. The hike down reached it’s most exciting period when we reached the open stairs. Metal open stairs. 244 wet steps of metal open stairs. They really weren’t too bad. at this point the rain was subsiding, and we were able to grip both sets of handrails without interruption all the way down to the base of the falls. Mission accomplished! down at the base level, it was now just a simple walk out to the shuttle and back to our car and then back to our cozy airbnb and warm showers.

The following days consist of drying out thoroughly soaked hiking shoes and making gear adjustments, like buying some zip-lock bags.  Overall an outstandingly memorable hike. Now on to bigger peaks.

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Sampling National Parks (day 2 & 3)

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On July 28, 2017

In National Parks, Travel

Driving to Colorado provides for the opportunity to check out some places along the way. Our fluid schedule had some time built in to “stop and smell the roses” a bit and Zion National Park was first on the list of roses to smell.

The Zion National Park is simply an amazing place. If you haven’t been, you need to add this national treasure your Life List. You will need at least a week to explore and really enjoy what the Zion canyon has to offer. At first, the Disney size crowds and shuttle waiting lines made me wonder if it was really worth the waiting. In all reality the park folks do an amazing job of managing the thousands of daily visitors. Free shuttle buses run during the peak of the season, the park was clean, and the visitor traffic (foot and car) seemed to flow fairly smoothly.  But the beauty of the canyon is the inescapable magic. The canyon walls rise up hundreds of feet in most areas and run for miles along the Virgin River. You can’t help but look up and when you do, all the questioning of other things around you fades away with the wonder of the natural beauty to witness.

Despite a late start on the first day, we hiked a part of the Angel’s Landing trail and then in the evening took the scenic drive around the park. We returned early enough the next morning to get in a good hike in part of the Narrows and Virgin River. The two days couldn’t have been more different. Sunny and warm, the first day seemed to find us behind the bubble of daily tourists. While the trail is largely paved, hiking up Angel’s Landing Trail in the afternoon sun was extremely challenging at best. Our second day was overcast and cooler, we were in early and on the shuttle quickly. Again the river-walk trail was paved but once we were hiking in and along the Virgin River in the shadows of the canyon walls, it made for a refreshing and most enjoyable time. But our time was up and we had to move on.

Back on the road we high tailed it from Zion up to visit the Arches National Park. When we arrived, the iconic Delicate arch was closed due to flooding, so we drove to the Window Arches section of the park. I think this was the better experience. It was a short walk to the several aches there and we were able to explore them much more. As the sun was getting low it was time to drive on. We rolled in to Grand Junction, CO for the night. On to Colorado Springs in the morning.

As a first time visitor through this particular part of the country I found passing through Utah, or at least southern Utah, pleasantly surprising to me with its diversity of terrain and features. There is so much of nature to see here. The magnitude of the way these lands formed and continue to change is amazing to see. These two short stops at these two parks told me I think I will definitely need to add a couple new things to my play list.

Narrows1

 

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Uncle Nick Grindstaff – AT 2017

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On July 11, 2017

In Travel

In early June of this year I was hiking over Iron Mountain while backpacking along the Appalachian trail and happened across the monument/grave of Uncle Nick Grindstaff. The inscription simply read:

“Uncle Nick Grindstaff
Born
Dec. 26, 1851
Died
July 22, 1923
Lived alone, suffered alone, and died alone”

Standing at a man’s grave on a mountain top, I could not help but wonder about the man behind the monument. This was the best back story I could find about him (https://bcyesteryear.com/uncle-nick-a-hermit-found-serenity-in-his-iron-mountain-shack). He died alone in his cabin in 1923. While he was a hermit, he was well known to his neighbors and they erected this monument to him after his death.

Ironically Uncle Nick, in search of solitude, found popularity. Remembered by his friends and family, he is now visited by hundreds of hikers each year, most of them in search of the same thing in some shape or form … solitude.

I left a pebble on his monument as I walked away.

(link updated 3/28/2023)

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Pikes Peak

Pike’s Peak for 2017

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On July 7, 2017

In Travel

I blame my oldest son. A couple of years ago, while attending his wedding in Colorado Springs, Colorado, I was enchanted by the amazing views of Pikes Peak. The mountain was incredible to watch in the morning sunrise. To my surprise and joy I learned there were hiking trails which lead to the summit. As an avid hiker, I thought this sounded great. My three children (and their dear spouses) all were very supportive and offered to go on this adventure with me as well.  Originally I wanted to make the hike in 2016. I was researching online, monitoring the weather at the peak. For motivation, I even had a large picture hanging in my office of the East side approach trail. However as life would have it, a number of now seemingly minor things intervened and I back-burner-ed the idea as the fall approached. Anyway we had been batting this trip around for a while so my New Year’s resolution was to nail it down and dedicate to making the trip and hiking the mountain.

Looking back, the delay actually worked out for the better. By watching the weather for a year, I was able to pick the best weather window for the trip. The picture with this post is from April 2015 and the entire top of the mountain to covered in ice and snow. So after much team discussion I have set a trek window set for the first week of August 2017 to hike this 14,115 foot tall iconic mountain. The delay also allowed me to figure out there was an alternative route to the peak.  Originally I had looked at taking the Barr Trail to the peak and riding the Cog Railway down. This 12 mile climb from 6000 feet might have been a bit much for us lowland folks. Again after much discussion I am planning the trek to start from West side at the Crag’s, come up through the Devil’s Playground, and on to the peak. We will overnight at Mueller State Park (about 10,000 feet) and then start hiking first thing in the morning. This will help both with altitude acclimation and give us the maximum amount of time to reach the peak in time to catch the rail down.

Besides the logistics of getting six people from two coasts to the top of a mountain, one of our major challenges is we all live at sea level. My daughter and her husband are stationed on the West coast in San Diego California, and my sons and daughter in-law and I live in the Charleston South Carolina area on the East coast. The air is very thin and breathing difficult at 14,000 feet and because we are all sea-level dwellers, we will need to spend some time at the Colorado Springs 6,000-8,000 foot elevation to help acclimate before we attempted the climb to over 14,000 feet. I plan to spend a couple days training on local hikes in and around Colorado Springs to acclimate to the elevation and finish physical preparations for the attempt to summit Pikes Peak.

Sometimes the first of something always seems the hardest. I think because of all the perceived unknowns prior doing the first. Sure someone can tell you how to bake a cake or climb a mountain, but until you do the first one it’s only an idea. The more you do, the easier it gets. And there are always mountains.

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