Pass Mountain Ridgeline

[ck1]

My friend Tony and I set out to do this little jaunt at about 5:30 this morning. I was somewhat surprised to see the trailhead parking lot full. Most of the cars were for Wind Cave Trail, we passed several groups on our way up. We also, (now to sound incredibly sexist) passed the most amazingly beautiful woman (aside from my wife) that I'd ever seen on the trail, and aside for the fact that her figure had been "enhanced" she was amazingly fit. This alone made the hike a success, but after a short consultation (really just an excuse to watch the woman and her companion descend the trail) we decided it would be difficult to explain to our wives why we'd finished the hike so quickly. We continued on. We hit the turn for the Wind Cave about 34 minutes into the hike and continued up to the southeast summit. From there we traversed the ridgeline enroute to the northern summit. It was actually pretty nice out, there was a significant wind, and the sun was still climbing, so it wasn't that hot yet. Aside from a brief encounter with a sluggish rattlesnake, the ascent to the north summit was enjoyable. The trail wasn't as well defined as I remembered it from my last trip. We top'd out at 1:55 minutes. After resting at the summit we continued on. Neither of us had interest in signing the summit register, though know I wish we had to know how many people (roughly) had been up there (my 1st time thru, the register had less than 100 names on it, dating back several years.).

The second half of the hike went along smashingly. We smashed our ankles, we smashed our knees, we smashed into bushes, trees, the ground, each other...we were a bit clumsy. Tony had an excuse, as he had'nt been hiking since before he went thru chemo. Me, I was just clumsy. On the slopes descending westernly we engaged in what I like to call "controlled falling"...as the trail is of a significant angle, and the surface is loose pebbles, moving slowly wasn't working, as we'd end up sliding out and butt planting. So, we did the "I'll kinda trot down to keep a steady forward momentum"...that worked for about a second, and then morphed into the "I'm falling, but still moving forward, just don't ask me to stop suddenly." This method of descent worked well and we soon found ourselves in the wash which empties out onto Pass Mountain Trail. We hit the trail junction at 2:45. The rest of the hike was along the Pass Mountain Trail back to the Wind Cave Trailhead. We passed a couple with an older man (like Hoolie old) that were heading "out" on Pass Mtn. I considered asking if they had enough water, as they were just a mile or 2 into a 7 mile hike, and it was approaching 9am. The older guy had a backpack, so we let it pass...though he was wearing jeans...which I am always amazed at...jeans on a summer hike...can you say swampass.

With the exception of a slurry of profanity at some of the ascents out of washes, the rest of the hike was hot, but alltogether not terrible. We returned to the start after 3:26 of hiking.

Not a bad summer morning hike.
_________________
-Colin

"The Journey is the Destination"

[Canyon Dweller]

I could not imagine doing Pass Mountain this time of year. The heat kills me. I try to get off the trail before 7:00. After that it's just too hot. I did it in the winter and that was perfect.
_________________
Mountains are there to be climbed!

"Meaningless! Meaningless," says the teacher, "Utterly Meaningless, Everything is meaningless."-Ecclesiastes 1:2