Getting high again
MCATs are in about 34 hours, and it looks like I'll most likely be retaking them in a few months. Grrr...
In somewhat happier news, my parents and I ended up successfully driving up to Prescott and hiking to the top of our first mountain together! Said mountain is the highpoint of the Bradshaw Range, a moderately rugged, pretty, but not overly spectacular group of forested peaks. The drive up entailed about 90 miles of freeway, 30 miles of busy state highway, 8 miles of paved road, and 2.5 miles of rough dirt road to the trailhead. We started hiking under mostly cloudy skies (which earlier had obscured many of the higher peaks), temperatures in the high 60s, and elevations around 7000'. The trails to the top were more or less very rocky ATV paths, and for the most part, our surroundings were indistinguishable from the hills of northern Michigan! En route, we spotted an old mine opening, some nice views off to the SE, and randomly enough, some small bundles of picked flowers lying on the path!
We reached the top of Mt. Union after 90 minutes of walking, 2.3 miles, and a bit over a thousand feet of climbing. The summit area contained a few buildings, one or two radio towers, and a manned lookout tower; the guy invited us up, and we found ourselves in a small but cozy and well-furnished room with beautiful 360-degree views. The clouds kept us from seeing as far as we otherwise could have, but we were able to see Browns Peak over a hundred miles distant, as well as the lower slopes of Humphreys Peak, so I suppose things could have been worse. We chatted with the guy a while, then finally descended. The going was a bit rough, especially on my stepfather, whose knee kept giving out on him, but that aside, we returned to the truck without incident. On the way out, we checked out a small but surprisingly nice lake (finding a lake in AZ is about as noteworthy an occasion as finding a hill in northwest Ohio!).
It was already getting late in the day, so we made only the short side trip to Hill Valley-esque Prescott, which I'd visited almost exactly a year ago. And just like last time, it was a beautiful afternoon, the town was busy but not crowded, and the weather was...perfect. We ate at Kendall's, a fifties-style burger place that had delicious food (if somewhat slow service). From there, we made the 2 1/2-hour drive back home, accompanied by a spectacular sunset. My spirits slowly fell as the temperature slowly rose a full twenty degrees, despite it being dark upon our return!
I took some pics, which I'll have to try to upload here when I get a chance. That won't be for a few days, for obvious reasons.
In somewhat happier news, my parents and I ended up successfully driving up to Prescott and hiking to the top of our first mountain together! Said mountain is the highpoint of the Bradshaw Range, a moderately rugged, pretty, but not overly spectacular group of forested peaks. The drive up entailed about 90 miles of freeway, 30 miles of busy state highway, 8 miles of paved road, and 2.5 miles of rough dirt road to the trailhead. We started hiking under mostly cloudy skies (which earlier had obscured many of the higher peaks), temperatures in the high 60s, and elevations around 7000'. The trails to the top were more or less very rocky ATV paths, and for the most part, our surroundings were indistinguishable from the hills of northern Michigan! En route, we spotted an old mine opening, some nice views off to the SE, and randomly enough, some small bundles of picked flowers lying on the path!
We reached the top of Mt. Union after 90 minutes of walking, 2.3 miles, and a bit over a thousand feet of climbing. The summit area contained a few buildings, one or two radio towers, and a manned lookout tower; the guy invited us up, and we found ourselves in a small but cozy and well-furnished room with beautiful 360-degree views. The clouds kept us from seeing as far as we otherwise could have, but we were able to see Browns Peak over a hundred miles distant, as well as the lower slopes of Humphreys Peak, so I suppose things could have been worse. We chatted with the guy a while, then finally descended. The going was a bit rough, especially on my stepfather, whose knee kept giving out on him, but that aside, we returned to the truck without incident. On the way out, we checked out a small but surprisingly nice lake (finding a lake in AZ is about as noteworthy an occasion as finding a hill in northwest Ohio!).
It was already getting late in the day, so we made only the short side trip to Hill Valley-esque Prescott, which I'd visited almost exactly a year ago. And just like last time, it was a beautiful afternoon, the town was busy but not crowded, and the weather was...perfect. We ate at Kendall's, a fifties-style burger place that had delicious food (if somewhat slow service). From there, we made the 2 1/2-hour drive back home, accompanied by a spectacular sunset. My spirits slowly fell as the temperature slowly rose a full twenty degrees, despite it being dark upon our return!
I took some pics, which I'll have to try to upload here when I get a chance. That won't be for a few days, for obvious reasons.