DESTINATION Sierra Vista Trail 1 Photoset
2010-02-06 | | -
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| Hiking | 28.50 Miles |
2,280 AEG |
| | Hiking | 28.50 Miles | 9 Hrs 30 Mns | | 3.00 mph |
| 2,280 ft AEG | | | | |
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| no partners | | Of the 3,000 odd miles I might tend to hike each year, 2,900 of those miles are typically hiked solo, a pattern I've committed to correcting in 2010. In service to that new goal, I got up and out the door a bit after 2:30am, heading down into Texas to connect up with the El Paso Ridgewalkers doing their annual cross desert trek on the Sierra Vista trail. This meandering path starts down just north of El Paso and winds its way around a variety of mountains, eventually terminating up in Las Cruces, New Mexico. Finding the unmarked southern trailhead was something of a challenge, but armed with some solid clues from one of the shuttle drivers I managed to arrive around 5:30am, first on site. The other hikers dribbled in over the coming hour, and we were off enjoying a crisp, clear, cold morning.
The club breaks this hike into three segments... the first winding around the east side of a range overlooking the Fort Bliss military range then cutting through a low pass back to the west side of the mountains... mostly following old jeep tracks for the 12-14 miles to reach an interim trailhead. There, a few of the hikers opted for a shorter day and took advantage of the support shuttle ride back to their cars. The shuttle was carrying our extra stuff, plus serving food, water, and wine... interesting options for the day's enjoyment.
The next leg turned away from the jeep roads and entered single track winding nicely out into the very varied desert landscape with both valley vistas and mountain accents. It was nice. This section was shared with a number of mountain bike riders out enjoying this sunny desert weekend day. After six or seven miles (hard to be exact with the constantly twisting trail) we reached the next shuttle connection, picking up some new hikers for the final seven mile leg. More wine, and though now foot weary being the norm for much of the group, everyone continued on into the final and nicest leg... which included odd dead grass meadows, giant spanish dagger forests, and miles of cat-claw equivalent scrub. Following an overly enthusiastic prior year trekker I managed to log some additional mileage when she lead me charging off trail up an old jeep track... fun, but given that I have not been hiking any long mileage in months, I my poor feet probably did not need the extra efforts.
I had burned hot spots into the soles of my feet during the first leg, and knew that my feet would be torn up by the end of this day, but it would not be the first time, and I could tell I was not the only hiker feeling the effort. It was odd to think that just a few months earlier this mileage would have been a light effort day, but now, training more on the bike, my feet had lost their conditioning. Oh, well...
At the finish, the wine expanded into beer, orange liquor served in dark chocolate shot glasses, and champagne... interesting mix, but oddly welcome. Shuttle drivers ran us back to our cars, and the long drive home wrapped up a day dark to dark... and, the year of living/hiking more socially has begun. |
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| Ageless Mind... Timeless Body... No Way! Use It and Lose It. Just the way it is... |
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