Climb every mountain!
Actually, that would be a bit difficult arond here. Time-consuming, that is.
But yesterday, after work, aliveandcooking and I hiked up Gomez Peak. Gomez Peak is 7200' high and arguably it's the highest mountain I've actually walked up. However one has to admit a certain amount of cheating, in that the starting point for the climb is 6200'. A mere thousand foot of climb isn't so bad (it equates to what I used to do, fifteen years ago, in the Peak District - Kinder was a touch over 2000' high but starting from Edale one was already 1000' up; in fact there are comparatively few places in the UK where one can hike all the way up a mountain's actual height - the most obvious example being Ben Nevis, which you CAN climb from sea level).
Anyway, it was the first serious climb I've done in a long time (maybe even since the car accident that wrecked my back) and I was pleased to discover that it didn't take too long and I didn't get seriously exhausted on the way (and I was carrying the camera backpack - camera, three lenses, binoculars, nature book, water and energy bars)
Now doubtless to some of you 1000' of climb (in about 1.75 miles) is a mere nothing to be impressed about, and that's fair. When I was hillwalking regularly I did walks of up to 15 miles or so and that would involve several climbing stretches. I even tried the Yorkshire Three Peaks walk once, and though I skipped Whernside's tedous whaleback that was still 22-odd miles with two very major climbs (I did very little the next day, though!). But I've not been walking any kind of distance for years now, and had put on a lot of weight (though some of that is gone and I'm probably no more than 15-20lbs heavier than when I used to hike regularly - I've passed the half-way point in my weight loss program, at 196lbs/14 stone).
This area offers enormous variety of walking trails, short or long, gentle or strenuous, in everything from flat desert to rolling foothill to serious mountain territory. Over the coming weeks we'll be trying to do at least one hike a week, as time permits.
ANd I could do that for the rest of my life and not cover even a fraction of the Gila Wilderness.
But yesterday, after work, aliveandcooking and I hiked up Gomez Peak. Gomez Peak is 7200' high and arguably it's the highest mountain I've actually walked up. However one has to admit a certain amount of cheating, in that the starting point for the climb is 6200'. A mere thousand foot of climb isn't so bad (it equates to what I used to do, fifteen years ago, in the Peak District - Kinder was a touch over 2000' high but starting from Edale one was already 1000' up; in fact there are comparatively few places in the UK where one can hike all the way up a mountain's actual height - the most obvious example being Ben Nevis, which you CAN climb from sea level).
Anyway, it was the first serious climb I've done in a long time (maybe even since the car accident that wrecked my back) and I was pleased to discover that it didn't take too long and I didn't get seriously exhausted on the way (and I was carrying the camera backpack - camera, three lenses, binoculars, nature book, water and energy bars)
Now doubtless to some of you 1000' of climb (in about 1.75 miles) is a mere nothing to be impressed about, and that's fair. When I was hillwalking regularly I did walks of up to 15 miles or so and that would involve several climbing stretches. I even tried the Yorkshire Three Peaks walk once, and though I skipped Whernside's tedous whaleback that was still 22-odd miles with two very major climbs (I did very little the next day, though!). But I've not been walking any kind of distance for years now, and had put on a lot of weight (though some of that is gone and I'm probably no more than 15-20lbs heavier than when I used to hike regularly - I've passed the half-way point in my weight loss program, at 196lbs/14 stone).
This area offers enormous variety of walking trails, short or long, gentle or strenuous, in everything from flat desert to rolling foothill to serious mountain territory. Over the coming weeks we'll be trying to do at least one hike a week, as time permits.
ANd I could do that for the rest of my life and not cover even a fraction of the Gila Wilderness.