{"id":10327,"date":"2020-06-21T21:54:48","date_gmt":"2020-06-22T03:54:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/?p=10327"},"modified":"2020-07-01T15:25:53","modified_gmt":"2020-07-01T21:25:53","slug":"first-steps-in-the-first-wilderness-part-14-summer-solstice","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/?p=10327","title":{"rendered":"First Steps in the First Wilderness Part 11: Summer Solstice"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

The same day I was hit with the worst of my biannual back pain episodes, a lightning strike started a forest fire in one of my favorite hiking areas. While I was immobilized on pain meds, the fire grew to engulf the entire ridge, turning the beautiful north slope into a moonscape.<\/p>\n

After two weeks the pain faded and I got back on my feet again, but, what with COVID-19, I wasn’t able to plan a solstice trip, or make any sort of plans for this special day. After another week of short walks and moderate strength training, I was anxious to find out if I’d lost any conditioning, so I returned to another one of my favorite trails, the ridge in the sky.<\/p>\n

It was going to be a hot day and I hoped it would be cooler up there between 8,000′ and 10,000′. No such luck, but at the top, the trail passes through some shady groves of old-growth pine and fir, which provided some relief.<\/p>\n

Despite the heat, the flowers were amazing, butterflies and other pollinators were everywhere, and it was great to be hiking again, on the longest day of the year. And I surprised myself by going up over the peak, down the back side, and returning the same way for 12-1\/2 miles and 3,140′ of elevation. Not bad after 3 weeks off!<\/p>\n

\"View <\/a>
View to the east, where smoke from a new fire in the San Mateo Mountains covers southern New Mexico <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"These <\/a>
These flowers are widespread, but I like the way this plant is growing out of the rock <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_0452\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_0454\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_0455\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_0456\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_0459\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"IMG_0461\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Really <\/a>
Really interesting plant with fern-like leaves <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_0463\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"IMG_0462\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_0465\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"Sky <\/a>
Sky island in the arid Southwest – fern dell with old-growth pine and fir at 9,700′ <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"I <\/a>
I guess this is a hairy woodpecker, not much else it could be <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_0473\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Longest <\/a>
Longest day of the year, so on the saddle way back in the wilderness, Max actually takes a rest <\/div> <\/div>
\"Field <\/a>
Field day for pollinators <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"I <\/a>
I climbed the peak in back, on the right, 2 days before my back pain started <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Brown <\/a>
Brown creeper taking flight <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Sometimes <\/a>
Sometimes the most delicate flowers are the smallest <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Close-up\" <\/a>
Close-up <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Looks <\/a>
Looks like a flicker <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Tiny <\/a>
Tiny flowers on the ground <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_0519\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"To <\/a>
To the west, smoke from the fire that burned one of my favorite trails near home <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_0527\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_0529\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"IMG_0530\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The same day I was hit with the worst of my biannual back pain episodes, a lightning strike started a forest fire in one of my favorite hiking areas. While I was immobilized on pain meds, the fire grew to engulf the entire ridge, turning the beautiful north slope into a moonscape. After two weeks […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[61,49,69,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-10327","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-black-range","category-hikes","category-hillsboro","category-southwest-new-mexico"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/06\/IMG_0470.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10327","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=10327"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10327\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10524,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10327\/revisions\/10524"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=10327"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=10327"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=10327"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}