Roger J. Wendell
Defending 3.8 Billion Years of Organic EvolutionSM
|
Hiking |
"You can't see anything from a car; you've got to get out of the goddamn contraption and walk, better yet crawl, on hands and knees, over the sandstone and through the thornbrush and cactus. When traces of blood begin to mark your trail, you'll see something, maybe.""Benedicto: May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poets' towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you --- beyond that next turning of the canyon walls."
- Edward Abbey
|
|
|
"Few people know how to take a walk.
The qualifications... are endurance,
plain clothes, old shoes,
an eye for nature, good humor,
vast curiosity, good speech,
good silence
and nothing too much."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
|
"He who is indeed of the brotherhood does not voyage in quest of the picturesque, but of certain jolly humours--of the hope and spirit with which the march begins at morning, and the peace and spiritual repletion of the evening's rest. He cannot tell whether he puts his knapsack on, or takes it off, with more delight."
- Robert Louis Stevenson |
 Photo by Vic Bradford |
Despite all of the climbing, swimming, cycling, flying and driving I've done hiking probably remains the one activity that's been with me the longest throughout my life. From about ages 12 through 16 I hiked extensively through the San Gabriel Mountains of Southern California - especially exploring Santa Anita Canyon, Mt. Wilson, and all the surrounding camps and trails (always stopping, of course, at Chantry Flats to load up on snacks and refreshments!). Prior to age 12 I hiked, extensively, the creek beds and streams of the Los Angeles foothills area (yes, L.A. had creek beds and streams at one time!) and the rolling fields of eastern Nebraska. From my earliest age I was out walking through Nature every chance I got (ask my mom!). |
From about age 16 on I did most of my hiking all over Colorado's portion of the Rocky Mountains. This was mixed with travel and extensive hikes in Grand Canyon, Hawai'i, Mexico, Canada, Africa, Argentina, and China. I heartily endorse hiking because it's darn good for your health, has a relatively low impact on the environment, and puts your pretty darn close to nature without requiring too much expensive equipment or clothing.Except for maybe Jean George's book My Side of the Mountain (I read it in 1969 when I was 13), I didn't do much reading about the outdoors until 1974 when I read Colin Fletcher's The Complete Walker. It isn't that I don't recommend you read and learn before getting involved outdoors it's just that I was too darn busy hiking, in my teens, to do much reading myself!
Trails!
Miscellaneous Trails:
 Lost Creek Wilderness |
 Grand Canyon |
 Trail to Mt. Shavano |
 Trail to Torreys |
 Tami on Morrison |
 Brian to Bierstadt |
 St Mary's Glacier |
I know it probably sounds goofy to read, on a hiking website, that the author loves trails - nevertheless that's how I feel! I mention my love for trails because I have so much additional experience without them. In addition to having done lots of scrambling or kicking steps and "post-holing" through snow, I've lost a trail or two and got really worried when I couldn't find 'em a day or two later!To me, trails are lovely little routes that have taken me through all kinds of wonderful terrain with relative confidence about my whereabouts and destination. Plus, even more importantly, they are relatively low-impact in that I'm not crushing flowers or scuffing lichens in my attempt to get from point A to B. Properly maintained trails really do help the landscape by keeping us two-leggeds in a narrow little corridor so the rest of nature can flourish around us unmolested. I recommend we avoid "cross-country" travel, whenever possible, and take full advantage of literally millions of trails throughout our country and around the globe....
- Roger J. Wendell
October 30, 2005
Please stay the trail!
Hiking CertificateOh, and one other point about trails - be sure to stay on 'em even when they're muddy or a bit icy. Under some conditions hikers will step to the side of a trail in an effort to avoid getting mud on their boots - these kinds of actions only worsen our impact by unnecessarily widening trails. The cure is to wear good hiking shoes or boots that are resistant to mud and water. Also, gaiters are perfect in keeping snow and other stuff from falling into your boots...
Mesa Trail:
Each New Year's Day Larry DeSaules leads a dozen to 15 of us up the Mesa Trail from El Dorado Springs to Chautauqua Park in Boulder, Colorado. Total one-way distance is 11 kilometres (7 miles) so we shuttle vehicles to get us from one end, to the other, usually stopping at Pasta J's or some other Boulder restaurant before heading back to the Denver area. It's always been a great way to bring in the new year!
 Photo by Larry |
 Filming for the Travel Channel |
 Which way? |
 Don't forget to call Peggy! |
 Girl Power! |
 Maiden and the Thumb |
|
Click Here for a YouTube video of Larry's Man Bag and descritpion of a Mt. Everest climb... |
Cairns:
Cairn - Flat Top Mountain, COA cairn (pronounced as a single syllable!!!) is usually a pile of rocks that marks a trail or boundary. I've seen some cairns that have a stick or pole jutting out of the top to make them more visible - sometimes over 3 metres (10 feet) high. I've also seen cairns that were so small they'd fit in the palm of your hand. These tiny cairns are usually in desert areas, like Grand Canyon, where the trail or route follows a canyon contour or crosses up a series of ledges that are steep and narrow. I think there's an unwritten "rule" that cairns should be a minimum of three pebbles, stones or rocks piled vertically when possible. This is because it's very unusual, in nature, to find three rocks just sitting on top of each other. But, like I mentioned above, huge piles of rocks serve the purpose as well. In places where the trail is really hard to follow, or it gets covered with snow, the idea is to place the cairns close enough so that the next one can be seen from the previous.
Grand Canyon Cairn!Another unwritten "rule" is that you should never disturb a cairn - no matter how unimportant it may appear to you somebody's life may be dependent on it! However, it is acceptable to "repair" cairns that have obviously been weathered or knocked over for some reason or another. Again, the idea is to use common sense and not create something that's misleading or dangerous. In all, I've been saved many times by an "oh my god" cairn - that's a cairn thankfully appearing just when I thought I'd never find the route or trail again! My deepest thanks to all of you who have thoughtfully placed, cared-for and maintained cairns!!!
- Roger J. Wendell
Golden, CO - 2005
Snow Cairn?I'm not sure if somebody put this "Snow Cairn" alongside Mesa Trail (Boulder, Colorado) for fun or not but the rule remains; "Don't disturb a cairn!"
Peak One:
On June 26, 2005 CMC leader Terry Chontos
took all five of us to the top of this 12,805' peak located near
Frisco, Colorado. The steep climb took us three hours and twenty
minutes - a bit faster than most! We made the summit during a break
in the weather - enduring some light "corn snow" and rain along
certain portions of the mountain...
 Terry took this photo a week earlier on his "scouting" trip - that's Lake Dillon in the background... |
 Left to Right: George Kasynski, Chad, Terry Chontos, and "Babs" |
 Me and the remains of a remote weather station... |
 Left to Right: Me, Chad, Terry and Babs at the weather station remains - George took the photo and emailed me most of these pix! |
Although this particular flag is pretty beat up I went ahead and posted it
here, and on my 4th of July page anyway. I don't
know who the keeper of the flag is but I'm sure their intentions are good
despite the horrendous winds that frequent this peak daily!!
Miscellaneous Hikes:
 North Maine Woods - Amber, Tami and I drove there from Denver! |
 Me at Hanging Lake, Glenwood Canyon, 3 Weeks to-the-day after foot surgery. 2.5 Miles roundtrip, 1000+ feet gain. |
 Coworker Linda agreed to accompany me to Hanging Lake on that warm Spring day in 2002... |
 My Mount Kenya hiking certificate from a trip to Africa in 2003... |
Hiking through the Colorado National Monument
Cryptogamic, or biological soil crusts are formed by living organisms and their by-products, creating a surface crust of soil particles bound together by organic materials. These soil "crusts" are found throughout the arid regions of the American west and can be a combination of cyanobacteria (formerly known as blue-green algae), lichens, and mosses which swell when wet. Cryptogamic soils are very fragile - please do not walk on them!
 Wildwood Drive Trailhead |
|
 Liberty Cap Prehistoric Sand Dune |
 Corkscrew trail |
 Cryptogamic Soil [see above] |
|
|
|
Click Here for a YouTube video of my climb up Liberty Cap in the Colorado National Monument! |
Did You Know?
- Hiking on the island of Guam is often referred to as "boonie stomping" (Source: Guam Visitors Bureau Adventure Travel Factsheet, 2006)
- The Colorado Trail (CT) is 479 miles (770 km) long with 74,750 feet of elevation gain and loss...
- The Appilachean Trail (AT) is 2175 miles long with 471,151 feet of elevation gain - taking approximately 5 million steps to complete the trail's entire length!
- The Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) is 2,650 miles long and runs from Mexico to Canada through California, Oregon and Washington.
Hiking Waypoints
For personal safety, and just for the fun of it, I usually take a GPS "reading" on the top of each peak, at the trailhead, or some other interesting point or curiosity along the way. WARNING: I cannot guarantee the accuracy of these waypoints as my own GPS bounces around a lot or I simply take an incorrect reading! Please rely on a more accurate source for your Waypoints! That being said, I still enjoy "cataloging" Waypoints and I keep a bunch of other locations, from around the world, on my 12ers, 13ers, 14ers, Waypoints, and other pages...
|
|
Death Valley - Telescope Peak
3,366 metres (11,043 feet)
June 7, 2011
 1. Stove Pipe Wells |
 2. Badwater Basin - minus 282 feet |
 3. Me and a Joshua Tree |
 4. Truck |
 5. Me at Zabriskie Point |
 6. Mahogony Flat Trailhead |
 7. Jeff going up |
 8. Looking up the trail to Telescope |
 9. Snow on Telescope Peak |
 10. Me on top |
 11. All six of us on top! |
 12. Ken heading down |
|
|
Click Here for a YouTube video through the cave to the top of Harney Peak... |
The Case Against Poles
(Hiking poles that is, not the people of central Europe!)
|
Although I read and enjoyed all of Collin Fletcher's books during the late 60s and early 70s (The Complete Walker, The Man Who Walked Through Time, The Thousand-Mile Summer, etc.) I never agreed with him on the use of a walking stick (He called it a walking staff). But, to his credit (p. 37 of "Walker"), Fletcher had admitted that, "...the vast majority of walkers never even think of using a walking staff, I unhesitatingly include it among the foundations of the house that travels on my back." However, I don't think Collin Fletcher or Roger Wendell ever imagined that, two decades later, the European craze of hiking with ski poles would have caught on so soundly not only in Colorado, but around North America and the world as well! |
So, here it is in late 2010 as almost everywhere I hike, backpack, or climb I see people using hiking poles. Now, of course, these poles are much more sophisticated than the simple ski poles we saw on Colorado's hiking trails in the late 80s. The modern hiking pole is sleek, light, spring-loaded, collapsible, and very expensive. Obviously I'm not going to dissuade anyone from using hiking poles. Nevertheless, let me list the reasons why I, myself, have never used them (and probably never will):
- Generally, but not always, the people who use poles can't keep up the pace or distance anyway - otherwise they probably wouldn't be experimenting with poles in the first place!
- The poles strengthen the user's arms but weaken their legs - especially their knees. Often, when users don't have access to their poles they complain about the pain, etc.
- The poles make too much noise. In Colorado we don't have too many "duff" covered trails like those in more wooded areas around the globe. So, on a still, quiet day in the backcountry you can usually hear a party's hiking poles clanking and scraping over the hard granite surfaces that usually line our trails.
- The poles, at times, poke other people by accident (at least I think those were accidents...).
- Poles aren't cheap - I've seen 'em for sale at over $100 - at a time when $100 could still buy 40 gallons of gasoline!
- Hiking poles are a packing nuisance (It was required I use a set in Africa but, back then, they didn't fit in my luggage. Thankfully the airlines lost them before we started our hike...).
- People can't climb or scramble with poles and always have to pass them along the trail, to other people, over the most difficult parts. On some of Colorado's more difficult 14ers it's not uncommon to find a few sets of hiking poles stashed beneath some rocks along a steep portion of the route - hopefully to be found by their owners when down-climbing...
- Poles are an extreme lightning hazard. But, of course, so is an ice axe or anything else that's metallic that you're not careful with...
- Not a big deal but poles poke a "ton" of small holes along each side of the trail. I've seen muddy trails lined with thousands of "pock marks" their entire length. Again, not sure what permanent damage this causes other than obviously widening the trail in places where it was simply okay to get your boots a little muddy!
- Many, many times I've seen a person's pole get stuck in some rocks or other obstacle requiring the user to, at a minimum, stop their work or even devote considerable effort to yanking the thing back out.
- Poles require a lot more effort to control on a glissade than an ice axe. And, I've seen people break poles on glissade many times!
Okay, I've brought my argument up in "public" and have had a few mountaineers come down on me since they're so accustomed to using hiking poles with great success. Admittedly, I'm not going to change anyone's mind, and, obviously, if you need poles for some medical reason, or at the direction of your doctor, don't give 'em up because of something you read on some goofy website (including this one!). Nevertheless, for the record, when the going gets rough I'm going to continue with my ice axe - I just never got "into" hiking poles and my knees still felt pretty darn good at age 55 when I was making this entry!
Links:
| Warning! Climbing, mountaineering, and backcountry skiing are dangerous and can seriously injure or kill you. By further exploring this web site you acknowledge that the information presented here may be out of date or incorrect, and you agree not to hold the author responsible for any damages, injuries, or death arising from any use of this resource. Please thoroughly investigate any mountain before attempting to climb it, and do not substitute this web site for experience, training, and recognizing your limitations! |
Back to Roger J. Wendell's Home Page...
Abbey |
About |
Blog |
Contacting
Me |
Copyright |
Disclaimer |
Donate |
Guest
Book |
Home |
Site
Index |
Solutions |
Terms,
Conditions
and
Fair
Use
Copyright
© 1955 -
