Mt. Charleston

Yesterday, I summitted Mt. Charleston, the tallest mountain in the state of Nevada, standing 11,918 feet above the surrounding desert.

My alarm clock went off at 4:30am so that I could be hitting the trail by 6, the earliest it was possible to start without using a flashlight.  The sun wasn't truly up, but colored the sky a pretty orange as I began.

The normal trailhead was closed for construction, so I had to use a spur trail that added about half a mile to the one-way trail length.  A crescent moon hovered ahead of me as the sun started to gleam on the cliffs.

A little more than an hour into the hike I hit the switchbacks and began gaining altitude rapidly.  It was very quiet - I encountered only one other hiker and two young mule deer bucks as I climbed.

By 9:30 I reached the top of the switchbacks.  4.33 miles in, and a gain of 3,102 feet.

After the switchbacks, the trail changed to a much easier ridge hike.  The birds of prey loved the ridge, using the thermals to swoop at high speeds from one valley to the next, just inches above the ground.  One was so close to me that I heard the thwack of his wings as he broke out of his stoop!  Mostly they didn't hang around long enough for a positive identification, but I did startle an owl at one point and a kestral flew near enough that I could see the distinctive colors.  That was exciting - I love kestrals, but had never seen one in the wild before!  There had clearly been a wildfire through this area at some point, as the area was dotted with burned and dead trees.

The trail got closer and closer to the summit.  At 11am I geared myself up for a final push... only to round a corner and see that what I'd thought was the summit wasn't.  So I pushed again... and again, what I'd thought was the summit wasn't!  By the time I finally laid eyes on the flag, I was quite demoralized.  Even the pretty yellow flowers went practically unnoticed!

The final quarter mile push to the summit was brutal.  I was so tired and unmotivated that I would take a dozen steps, then rest for ten seconds or more!  But eventually, at 12:30, I made it!

I didn't hang around for long though, since I still had another 8.5 miles left to go before dark!  I only snapped a few pictures on the descent, quickly becoming too tired to risk stopping more than I had to.  It would be too easy to stop for too long, and I didn't want to be hiking in the dark.

I finally made it back to the car at 6:25pm.  Twelve hours and twenty five minutes round trip, 17 miles, and 4,279 ft of elevation gain and then loss.  I had conquered Mt. Charleston!