Hiking Mount Charleston

A friend of mine invited me along on an overnight hike in Mount Charleston.  I could never refuse an adventure like this so I went along.  This trek served two purposes; a long overdue measure of my fitness level and limitations of this 42yr old body, and to gain some valuable trail experience for an upcoming trek I will be taking with Steve Meyer in september somewhere in the Grand Canyon.  I have never been on an overnight hike like this beyond the reach of cell phones and civilization.  All my overnighters have been canoe trips fully loaded with lots of gear and beer.  So this was a pretty big, pared down adventure for me.

I should have clued in though, that hiking 'MOUNT' Charleston would be such a high experience... y'see, I am afraid of heights, and this hike was all about getting up to the top of the mountain range along narrow, steep, side-hill switchbacks.  It was a long day and a long, tough slog to get up there under the weight of the pack.  It really challenged my mental state to be able to push through and not get too freaked out by how far down I'd roll if I mis-stepped and went over the side.  I was thankful that I'd purchased new hiking boots (Ariats) for the trek which gave me some sure footed, comfortable confidence, and I was thankful for the knitted wool socks that Tanya had just given me as an early christmas present.  The socks were as promised, the 'best socks ever' for keeping my feet dry and the blisters at bay for the duration of the hike.  Thanks Tan!

PPL (Pierre-Paul Lavoie) was my guide, and his Aussie shepherd Klein was also with us.  I borrowed PPL's pack for all my stuff and he said it was heavy for 'trail weight' at around 35lbs, but I needed everything I'd brought.  We decided against the 6 pack of beer in lieu of a couple big Guinness cans, two for me and one for him.  Very early on we stopped to lighten our loads and have our first celebratory beer, which would be a huge mistake for PPL later on in the day.

Pushing uphill with a full pack is really tough work.  Its been a long, long time since I've pushed my body that hard for that far.  I knew I could do it.  We took our time and rested often.  Charleston Peak via the South Loop Trail is an 18 mile round trip with a 4300' gain.  7 hours in, we finally crested the mountain's peak into the sunshine and were rewarded with a flat trail and a crow's eye view of the valley below.  PPL had begun experiencing nausea some hours earlier and had to stop more and more frequently to fend off the sickness, but at the end of it he could hardly function.  This, we would later find out, was altitude sickness which was exasperated by the one beer he'd had.  He was completely done.  I ran ahead and scouted out a good camping location not too much further along at Griffith's Peak to set up camp at an elevation of 10,830 feet.  Stopping was OK with me because I could hardly lift my legs any more, but poor PPL had a rough couple hours until he finally hurled it all out.  He had me worried.

Celebratory mountaintop beer, and a little yodling!

I set up camp under his instruction and got him settled and then caught the sunset from the mountaintop and had my second celebratory Guinness.  That beer was sooo good!  It soaked into my tongue, through all my bones and aching muscles.  Its too bad we couldn't have had a fire to warm up our bodies once the sun set, because the temperature dropped really quickly and the moonless night was black.  In my mind I had to come up with an evacuation strategy in case... well, I'm really happy it didn't go that route.  Could I, if I needed to, carry my buddy out?  I don't think so.  Maybe under a full moon, but not in this blackness.  We would have had to wait until morning.  Thankfully he was better once he hurled, and the next day he was back in the saddle.

Nearing the top, the trail slopes dramatically!

We probably should have gone the 1 mile to the end of the trail, but we were running low on water so we decided to come back and finish the trail another day.  The descent was a lot quicker, though my knees were starting to get tweaked and I relied heavily on my hiking poles to ease the bombardment.  We were fortunate to find a trickle of water to refill our containers.  I never actually used my extra water until we got back to the car, so the 4 litres of liquids I brought with me was just barely enough for this trek.  We got back to the car in about 5hrs.

A seashell at 10,000' elevation

That hike pushed me to my limits, and what a wonderful deep pain it left in my body.  The endurance is there and capable of doing these treks, but the aches in the joints is not something I can really work and improve upon.  This 42yr old body has its limits and I need to respect what its telling me.  I am pretty happy it can get me way out there though,  knowing I am still up to the challenge.

Thanks for reading.

TRJ

 

 

 

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