{"id":17030,"date":"2022-08-08T10:40:36","date_gmt":"2022-08-08T16:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/?p=17030"},"modified":"2022-08-08T13:14:04","modified_gmt":"2022-08-08T19:14:04","slug":"hiker-in-the-storm","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/?p=17030","title":{"rendered":"Hiker in the Storm"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/p>\n

This Sunday’s weather was forecast to be partly cloudy and warm. I’d been having such a hard time climbing \u2013 my lung capacity didn’t seem to be recovering \u2013 I felt I needed to keep pushing, forcing myself to climb higher on each new hike. And getting up in the higher elevations would help with the heat. Maybe I’d even get some rain.<\/p>\n

With the wildfire closures, the only nearby hike I hadn’t tackled yet was my old favorite, which climbs to the shoulder of a 9,700′ peak and continues down a ridge to a saddle with dramatic rock outcrops. It would involve between 4,000′ and 5,000′ of accumulated elevation gain, depending on how far I got.<\/p>\n

\"Ideally, <\/a>
Ideally, I would’ve reached the junction, off the map at upper right, with the (now abandoned) trail that comes up from Big Dry Creek at lower right. BTW, all those other trails are abandoned and unfindable, like most trails in this new wildfire regime. <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Just <\/a>
Just past the wilderness boundary, starting down into the canyon <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

But first I had to get through the jungle in the canyon bottom, which occupied 2-1\/2 miles of the hike. It was as overgrown as I’d expected, a riot of flowers, flies, and waist-high growth with heavy dew, completely covering the trail, soaking my canvas pants. As usual, I was drenched with sweat from the beginning, but in the sections where the creek was flowing above ground, I could wet my hat and head net for a little evaporative cooling.<\/p>\n

And I’d worn waterproof boots, so my feet stayed dry.<\/p>\n

\"Trail <\/a>
Trail overgrown with sumac in canyon bottom near creek <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7873\" <\/a> <\/div>
\"I <\/a>
I like how this fly, trying to reach my eyes, interrupted my photo of the yellow flowers <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7878\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7879\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Shirt <\/a>
Shirt just beginning to get soaked with sweat <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"IMG_7885\" <\/a> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Heavy <\/a>
Heavy dew in the canyon bottom <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

The long climb to the 9,500′ crest was difficult and slow. I’m beginning to suspect the damage to my lungs was permanent, and I may never regain the ability to climb steadily at my normal walking pace.<\/p>\n

I stopped at the spring below the peak, to rinse out my hat and head net. I’d been glad to see no recent cattle sign so far, but unfortunately found a big cowpie near the spring less than a day old. The beast was apparently hanging out in the high country \u2013 avoiding the Forest Service’s recent attempt at removal.<\/p>\n

Far above the spring, just as I turned the corner into the interior and got my first view of a storm building over the wilderness, it began to rain. I first pulled on my poncho, then when I reached the saddle with its little surviving stand of pines and aspens, I changed into my waterproof and thornproof hunting pants.<\/p>\n

Last fall’s trail crew had cleared most of the logs across this trail, but from here on, the main challenge was thorny locust, and they’d done nothing about that. I’d chopped about a half mile of locust with my machete a couple of years ago, but it’s fast growing, and if I wanted to continue I’d just have to fight my way through it.<\/p>\n

I knew there would be little reward \u2013 after the slow climb to the crest, I knew I didn’t have enough time to reach the rocky saddle, and the intervening trail would just be a thorny jungle with no view and no landmarks. But I still wanted to give my lungs a workout, so I fought my way through the thorns for another mile or so, stopping at an arbitrary point on a traverse just below the crest of the ridge. Through an opening in the locust, I spotted something far down the canyon, a hazy spot that might or might not be smoke.<\/p>\n

I watched it long enough to see it drift and change. Yes, there was a little fire down there, apparently a lightning strike. But the whole landscape was saturated, and another big storm was building over the mountains \u2013 surely this would burn out quickly?<\/p>\n

\"First <\/a>
First view of the interior <\/div> <\/div>
\"Rain <\/a>
Rain starting on the crest <\/div> <\/div>
\"Changing <\/a>
Changing into waterproof hunting pants <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Yes, <\/a>
Yes, that’s the trail! Fighting my way through thorny locust on the ridge… <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Nice <\/a>
Nice trail, huh? <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Last <\/a>
Last fall’s trail crew gave up here <\/div> <\/div>
\"These <\/a>
These Indian paintbrush grew unusually tall to escape the undergrowth <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"What's <\/a>
What’s that hazy spot in the distance? <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Yep, <\/a>
Yep, a little wildfire, must’ve been a lightning strike <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

After I began the hike back up the ridge, the vegetation was so dense that I didn’t get another view of the little fire. But it was soon raining again, and I knew I didn’t have to worry.<\/p>\n

At the saddle, I trudged up the little rise that gives a view over the peaks of the range. The northern half of the interior was getting hammered by rain, and another storm was forming outside the mountains in the south.<\/p>\n

\"Looking <\/a>
Looking back I spot the small scar of another recent lightning-strike fire that burned out before causing much damage <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"More <\/a>
More rain on the hike back up the ridge <\/div> <\/div>
\"Yep, <\/a>
Yep, that’s my trail <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"View <\/a>
View south – looks like the storm is surrounding the mountains <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"View <\/a>
View from 9,500′ – peaks getting hammered <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"View <\/a>
View west <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Lightning and thunder were bombarding me from all sides up there, and the first part of the descent is totally exposed, so I wasted no time descending. The rain fell harder, blowing sideways, but I knew it would move on soon.<\/p>\n

After the rain moved on, the air was so chilled I regretted leaving my sweater at home. But as it turned out, the hike down the long switchbacks and through the canyon bottom jungle went much faster than the climb up, and hiking kept me warm.<\/p>\n

In the canyon bottom, I was really glad of the waterproof pants now that all that waist-high vegetation was soaked from the rain. Unable to see the rocks in the trail, I was constantly slipping and stumbling. And my third rain of the day began during the last stretch before the climb out of the canyon. I’d been accompanied by the sound of thunder continuously since reaching the crest hours ago.<\/p>\n

\"On <\/a>
On the descent – hard rain slacking off <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"I <\/a>
I flushed three different kinds of birds out of the vegetation here – brown creepers, something larger, and then this flicker that came to roost atop a snag <\/div> <\/div>
\"Grateful <\/a>
Grateful for these pants and boots <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Flies <\/a>
Flies fierce in the canyon bottom <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Raining <\/a>
Raining yet again, nearing climb out of canyon <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"The <\/a>
The little creek, not at all swollen from today’s storms <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n

Driving out of the mountains, and looking back at where I’d come from, I could see storms getting bigger both east and west, over Arizona. And back home, I’d no sooner parked in my driveway than it began to pour.<\/p>\n

\"Big <\/a>
Big storm building over Arizona in the west <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>
\"Looking <\/a>
Looking back at where I hiked today <\/div> <\/div>
\"Entering <\/a>
Entering town, with a storm hammering the mining district in the east <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div> <\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This Sunday’s weather was forecast to be partly cloudy and warm. I’d been having such a hard time climbing \u2013 my lung capacity didn’t seem to be recovering \u2013 I felt I needed to keep pushing, forcing myself to climb higher on each new hike. And getting up in the higher elevations would help with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17057,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49,65,60,58],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17030","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-hikes","category-holt","category-mogollon-mountains","category-southwest-new-mexico"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/IMG_7937.jpg?fit=1200%2C900&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17030","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=17030"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17071,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17030\/revisions\/17071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/17057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=17030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=17030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maxcarmichael.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=17030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}