Meghan's Blog

« Reason #349 Of Why I Shouldn’t Be Allowed Out In Public | Main | Kinda Quiet? Not So Much. »

October 2, 2007

And The Snow Flies

I refuse to notice those small-yet-still-present patches of snow in my yard. I can't see the snow flurries dancing through the air on wind gusts. I won't acknowledge the solid white mountaintops as they occasionally poke through passing cloud banks. I shut my eyes to the outdoor thermometer which reads a balmy 33 degrees Fahrenheit at 11 am. I won't, I won't, I won't (said while simultaneously stomping my feet and pouting my lower lip)!

But my whining is a little beside the point. Winter is arriving whether I whine about it or not.

On Sunday, my sweetie and I did a run/hike to the top of Mount Holmes, a 10,336 foot peak located close to my house. The trail begins at about 7,300 feet elevation. From there, it rolls happily along with little-to-no net elevation gain for a little over 5 miles to a trail intersection. From this trail intersection, it's a bit more than 5 more miles to the mountain's summit, and about 3,000 feet up.

It was only about 50 degrees Fahrenheit, but beautifully sunny, when we began at about mid-day at the trailhead. I wore a long sleeve technical shirt and running tights, and brought along several more layers of clothing. I felt like I was changing my clothing configuration about every 30 minutes during this outing, which is sort of ridiculous, but the conditions kept changing!

We covered the first 5.3-ish miles from the trailhead to the trail intersection in about 1:10. This included a creek crossing on a log which took me approximately all day to accomplish. It took us 2 hours exactly to cover the next segment of the trail, the 5.5-ish mile distance (with a 3,000 foot vertical rise) to the summit. We did a lot of hiking here!

The first fascinating experience we had was encountering 2 dueling bull elk in a 8,500 foot high valley. From quite a distance away, we could hear the sounds of their clashing antlers! Next, at about 9,000 feet, we encountered ice and snow, and we stayed in it all the way to the summit. In places, there were a few inches of snow on the trail.

The top of Mount Holmes was so windy and so cold. There, the ice and snow was attached sideways to different surfaces, as if it had been applied in this same fierce wind. In between bouts of uncontrolled shivering, I tried to look around and appreciate the view. I have played in a lot of the territory below, and it was fun to recognize various land features. We stayed at the top for only for about 10 minutes since the conditions were nearly unbearable. Within 10 minutes, we were 500 vertical feet lower and the conditions immediately abated. Go figure.

It took us about 3:10 to reach the summit, 10 minutes to hang out on top, and 2:40 to return to the trailhead. We should have made it down a lot faster, but with about 5 miles to go, I got so tired! I think I just plain bonked. I was consuming fewer calories than usual, and we were out in some pretty cold weather wherein I suppose our energy requirements were higher.

I was doing a lot of walking intermixed with running, and this slower pace was giving me a chance to take my eyes off the trail and really look around. Good thing, because about 1 mile from the trailhead, I caught of glimpse of a bear butt moseying around in some high grasses a fair distance off the trail. It was a young black bear, and it kept its head down in the grass, never noticing that we were there! It was a fun chance encounter to end the day!

As usual, my sweetie took some pictures (and I didn't bring a camera), so I'll post some if he shares!

Posted by Meghan at October 2, 2007 10:40 AM

Comments

Posted by: backofpack at October 2, 2007 6:49 PM

Posted by: Beth at October 2, 2007 6:50 PM

Posted by: JeffO at October 3, 2007 11:30 AM

Posted by: Kendra Borgsnowoman at October 3, 2007 8:12 PM

Posted by: Bob Gentile at October 4, 2007 11:05 AM

Post a comment

Name:

Email Address:

URL:
Remember Me? YesNo

Comments: