To the Top of Granite Mountain!
Description of hike courtesy of www.vtrail.com
Topographical Map generated with my GPS and MapSource
Last week when I decided to do Granite Mountain one more time, I swore that no matter what happened, I would reach the summit. I joked as we parked that if I broke my leg getting out of the truck, I would claw my way to the top. Nuria decided she was not parked strait so went to back up and re-center. She did not put the truck in reverse and lurched forward about 6 inches. I think she did this intentionally to try to break my leg to test my theory. While my leg did not break, I would have still made it.
I don't know what it is about hiking but the first half-mile of every hike I feel like turning around and going home. I had the same feeling at the beginning of this one. I wonder what the cause of it is. I know it is temporary and that I do not want to go home, but I get that feeling every single time.
The Pratt Lake Trail is much less steep than the Granite Mountain Trail. The first mile in on the Pratt Lake Trail is a really nice walk in the woods and a lot of fun. Dan, Nuria, and I have similar senses of humor and the conversation is fun as well.
Once we hit the Granite Mountain trail, the trek becomes much more grueling. It is a serious grunt up the mountain for the next mile and a half or more. At about the half way mark, I noticed that it was where we turned around 2 weeks ago. I thought we were 2/3 to 3/4 done with the hike, but we were only half way. We continued on to a little pond about .7 miles from the top.
At this point, Isis wanted a little water. I had never had the chance to try out my water purifier, so I gave it a go on Isis's water. I then decided that my water was getting low and used the pump to dill up my water. After about a liter, two Siberian Huskies came up and jumped into the pond to drink and stir up the silt. It did not help that I dropped my water bladder and spilled nearly all my water at this point. While I was able to replenish my water supply in the end, I had to clean the end filter three times to pump 2.5 liters back into my bladder. The light gray Huskies were real friendly and really beautiful, but they made pumping water a real chore. If only they could have waited 5 minutes to jump into that water. I have never been able to reason with dogs well though. It is almost like they don't understand English.
Once we resumed the hike to the top, I realized I was getting pretty tired. Dan and I had discussed scrambling over the boulders instead of taking the path to the top, while Nuria would take Isis on the path. I decided then and there, that I should not do the boulders. About 0.2 miles later, we reached the boulders and Dan and I took them. Why? Peer pressure does not really play a part in my life, but I am really competitive, especially with myself. When Dan asked, knowing how tired I was and how much more work it would be, I still decided to push myself onward the hard way. I made it, but it took a lot of work. Nuria reached the top 20 minutes before us. (Dan would have beaten her if he did not have to wait on me.)
Here are some pictures from the way up:
The lookout on the top was closed so we had to settle for the views from the top. Settle is really not the right word for this though as Granite Mountain has the best views ever. Dan pointed out that the shaded area under the lookout was not the highest point, and Nuria had a burning desire to go to the highest point (I did not understand why because it is all the top of the mountain), so we all went to the highest point and had our pictures taken. Unfortunately the camera was in macro mode and the pictures were completely blurry.
Here are some pictures from the top:
We stayed at the top for nearly two hours. It was a lot of fun actually. Nuria found a place to leave a note at the top and I left the note: "I did not see one Bigfoot on the whole trip. What kind of a Mountain is this?" I figure if you are going to leave a note for people to read, make it something they will remember. I considered: "Hey! What happened to my still!" as an alternative. Nuria left a note as well, but I do not recall what it said. With luck, when she reads this she will remind me and I will add it here (hint, hint). Dan did not want to leave a note.
When we decided to go down, Dan took the boulders and Nuria and I took the path. We had the fringe benefit of seeing two lakes from the Path: Denny Lake and Crystal Lake. Dan beat us to the bottom. Last time we scrambled on boulders, I noticed that Dan was really fast at it. He said it was due to the fact that the boulders exactly compensated for the fact that he was always off balance. I am not certain, but I think if I get drunk just before walking on boulders, I could do it as fast as Dan.
The hike down seemed to go on forever. It did not help matters that the bottoms of my feet hurt the last mile and a half. By hurt, I mean they were on fire. I seriously thought that I had injured them to the point where they were bleeding. About this time, I also ran out of water. With a mile and a half to go, I did not think much of it. Nuria even offered me water but I did not think I needed any. Lesson learned. By the time I got back to the truck, I was nauseated and dizzy. I drank 2 12 oz Gatorades immediately. By the fourth, driving home in my truck, I felt fine again. I will never allow myself to run out of water again.
I think Dan summed up my feelings when getting back to the truck best when he said "We may have made it to the top, but I think the mountain won." I was pretty tired after the hike and my feet hurt and I was dehydrated. Looking back on it with about 24 hours of time to think and realize there was nothing wrong with my feet except the extra stress put on them by the boulders, I was wrong. We made it to the top of that mountain, so we won. The fatigue was just the cost of the victory.
