What was your defining hike?

[BobP]

Mine is a Secret...opps I just gave it away. A defining hike is one YOU define. It doesn't have to be the longest,hardest, or most fun. It may be your first HAZ hike or the one you almosted died on from a falling rock.

The following are my runners up in no particular order and the reasons. My defining hike will be a short story changing the hikers names to assure the utmost anonymity.

Runners up:
Skeleton Cave...no explanation needed if you've visited the website lately.
Mother Lode and MLDV...4 times and it never got old.
Oct BP trip to White Mtns...great company and we saw a bear and drank beer.
Malapais...cool offtrail and great views.
BP trip on Kendrick...water shooting from my nose from laughing so hard.
Salt Trail...because its "like a Flatiron"....on steroids
South Bass to Elves....great destination and overcoming adversity.
Desert stroll route...long hike in the heat.
Too many more to mention..Thanks to all of my 29 partners looking forward to 2010.

Now for the mean event. It was the day before Halloween and me and three "girl scouts" went for a hike in Sedona.The hike started out in sub-freezing temps.Oh... and I drove and no one complained ;) . We started on a trail and passed some ruins and missed the turnoff to the backyard. We continued offtrail until the canyon choked us. The girl scouts had me climb to see if we could find a passable route. As I climbed, they were divvying up my belongings in case of my demise. We looked for a new route I stayed high and the scouts went low. I found a shortcut along a ledge cut into the rock formation and yelled for the trailing scouts. In a short time, we were upon the Blair Witch section. The hike from this point to the saddle was pleasant and uneventfull. I'll anonymously define each girl scout now. GS1 we'll call Evil HAZ Founder,GS2 is folically challenge GS, and three is Pastor GS. We lunched at the saddle and GS1 asked me to go do some more recon. I found a route. I called down to the now giggling girl scouts and asked them to bring my pack. GS1 handed me my pack with a smile and I said "wow by pack is heavier after I ate my lunch and cached water". I played along and soon we were at a difficult part where GS3 was getting a little too close to GS2. We all climbed higher and they decided to stop. I continued and then downclimbed a different easier "girl scout" route suggested previously by GS1. I kept the souvenir from the scouts as a reminder of this hike and have carried it with me on all subsequent hikes...some of which were kinda difficult. The souvenir made me a stronger hiker. I've finally decided to retire HAZ ROCK.

Rememer to tip your bartenders and most important make a financial contribution to HAZ if you can afford one. I look forward to reading your defining hike. Be safe...have fun...2010 is right around the corner.

[Al_HikesAZ]

Those are very clever Joe.

In my defense, I spent a week in the Brig but I got an Honorable Discharge

i think we all wanna hear about what turned "the man" into "the man"....

No. we have the Legend and it's still growing. We don't need the real story.

[fricknaley]

we have the Legend and it's still growing.

true...who here on HAZ doesn't have a defining moment with the "man" while on some hike. that would be a whole thread in and of itself.

[tahosa]

Its very hard to say what my most defining hike was. Maybe it hasn't even happened yet, so I'll be looking forward to the future. After hiking here in AZ in the 90's with my kids, life took us back to CO where I was involved as a volunteer with the USFS as a backcountry ranger for nine seasons. I spent a great amount of my time on ~Crosier Mountain~.

And this is where I did a patrol on May 31, 2007, that is probably my most defining and memorable hike I will ever take. We hiked Trail 1013 - The Gravel Pit reached the summit at 9025 ft. Then played on the mountain where I hid two of my favorite caches, named in honor of my Father and Mother. We then exited the mountain by way of the Drake (Garden Gate) Trail. My hiking partners were two of my closet friends in CO, both whom are mountaineers, a step above us lowly hikers. Little did we know that Carolyn's time was getting short. For on August 7, 2008 we were to lose Carolyn.

I wrote a poem on one of my caches that was in my Mothers Honor, who was also a nurse from Philadephia, and now that poem has a lot of meaning when I think of Carolyn while I'm hiking.

You cannot stay at the cache forever, you have to come down again.
So why seek in the first place?
Just this: What is above knows what is below.
But what is below does not know what is above.
One hikes, one finds.

One returns and remembers what they have seen.
When in the lower regions you will be glad.
For you saw what others only dream about.
There will be a time when your visions are dimmed
But you will at least know
What it was like up there.

[Thoreau]

Flatiron. Without a doubt. That was the first 'real' hike I had ever attempted, and I'm lucky to have made it out of that one without a helicopter rescue since we were completely unprepared (lack of water, food, zero knowledge of the trail/area, etc.)

That hike taught me everything I needed to know to make VERY certain that I am always as prepared as I can be on all hikes, and gave me a new found level of appreciation for just how unforgiving Arizona can be.

[azhiker96]

Mine was the Flatiron as well. The first time I attempted it I didn't even make it to the top. I actually got off-trail a couple of times. (I know, ) The second attempt I made it to the top. Then I started hiking it every week, then twice a week until I could pretty much jog the whole way up and down. That hike was my preparation for my first Grand Canyon adventure, a stealth overnighter. The Flatiron started my addiction that led further down the road to GC RTR, Four Peaks Motherload, and "The Sickness" ( an appropriately named Superstition Ridgeline out and back rather than the usual one way with a shuttle hike). Yes, my name is George and I am a hiker. I'm in a 12 (thousand) step program but I don't think that will be nearly enough.

[juliachaos]

I've been hiking since before I could even remember. Grew up next to a nice little forest in Iowa, and went out to Colorado every year or two to see the mountains out there. Mostly we would go on old mining trails or hike up to ghost towns. Sometimes we would end up at the top of Flat Top Mountain in Estes Park. There wasn't much of a view from there, but it was pretty neat to see all the other mountains, and it was nice being at the top and not having to walk any farther. Actually, the most exciting part of the trip back then was always finding a spot to stash a quarter, taking a picture of the spot, and then trying to find the same spot the next year. So that's really all hiking was to me at that point.

Then when I was 11, we went back out to CO with the extended family. Some of the adults decided it would be fun to try an off-trail hike for once. I'm not sure why but they picked the south slope of Quandary Peak, which is basically boulder hopping and scrambling and (if you took the route I took, which my parents don't know about ) a little bit of climbing. I was told beforehand that if I made it all the way to the top, there would be some Dairy Queen waiting for me when I got back, so I figured it was worth it to walk to the top of a mountain one more time.

We started out nice and early, and got to the "trailhead" right after the sun rose. Five adults who rarely -- if ever -- exercised, and two kids. And so we started up. At first, the route seemed quite acceptable. There weren't too many big rocks and the ground was basically sandy dirt and grassy plants and a few pebbles. But then we started to get into the fun stuff. The rocks got bigger and turned into boulders, and often started tumbling down the mountain seemingly of their own accord. We had to start using our hands to make progress instead of relying only on our feet. And the summit seemed to get suddenly steeper and farther away. Of course, none of this bugged me in the slightest. This was so much more fun than just walking up another trail! I was young and full of energy and didn't know what danger was. I was having the time of my life trying to figure out which route to take next, and testing out rocks to make sure they wouldn't move, and pulling myself up and onto rocks that were bigger than me. But at the same time, many of the adults were not doing so well. My dad, who tries to make light of pretty much any situation, started singing his own version of "Rawhide":

Rollin', rollin', rollin'
See those boulders rollin'
Feels like going bowlin'
ROCKSLIDE...

My uncle didn't find that amusing in the slightest, but I have always carried that song with me ever since. It pops into my brain from time to time again, whenever I'm in a similar situation. Always good for a smile.

We all did end up making it to the top. It was one of the best days of my life. I felt that, for once, I had actually earned the hike. It was interesting, challenging, and much different from anything else I had ever done. It was a real accomplishment. That day my view of what hiking was changed completely. I am always longing for the more difficult hikes; hikes I have to use my hands and my brain for. I love the regular hikes too, of course, but the ones that really get me excited will test the boundaries of my comfort and challenge me.

I don't think I ever did get that ice cream. But I don't mind. I came back with something much more valuable than a Dilly Bar could ever be.

[juliachaos]

@sirena
Thank you for sharing. My mom has fibromyalgia also (as well as many other health issues). I can only hope that her being active will have the same positive effect on her life. The pain she is in and the number of pills she needs daily seems astronomical. Your story offers at least a small glimmer of hope that things might not have to be so bad. Thanks for that, and I'm happy for you that you were able to get your life back after such a huge struggle. =)

[JimmyLyding]

My favorite thread!

[KwaiChang]

THIS was an awesome read alllllllll the way thru the comments and the original post. Mine was Bear Mtn in Sedona posted on this site. made me realize that WOW the south west has ALOT to offer for hiking....I been around. Not as much as I would like tho.....

[SuperstitionGuy]

Zion Narrows to the spring and back. Water always knee deep or waste deep and very cold. I caught up to a young fella from China and we raced each other upstream. I would poor on the coal and pass him. Then he would kick it into high gear and pass me. We laughed and laughed as we raced upstream. We only kept warm because we were expending so much energy. I was at least 20 years older then him and I did not want him to show me up. When we reached the dripping spring we crashed on a sunny dry spot and got acquainted. Shared the food we had and tried to understand each other. He wanted to continue on but I had to return as my wife was waiting for me and I was afraid she would call out SAR to find out what happened to me. I did however race back so my new found friend would know who won the race between America and China. I never saw him again. LOL

[Peter_Medal]

Salt Trail...because its "like a Flatiron"....on steroids

ha ha... yup