This was a hike that HollyO had been wanting to do with me for a while as she's never been on this peak. Marlenea had also wanted to bag this peak but didn't think she could do it. I came to their rescue! Miller peak is not an easy peak to bag no matter what direction you start out with.
I got to the meet-up location at the Coronado Visitor's Center at 6:15am, just as the sun rose over the mountains and peaked through the oaks. Marlenea and Holly arrived at 6:30am and we all drove in my truck the last 3.5 miles up the dirt road to the parking lot at Montezuma's Pass, just a mile north of the Mexican border and the southern trail head along the Arizona trail.
We began at 6:54am. Temperatures were forecasted in the mid 70s for Sierra Vista, so about 70F for the peak. We had little wind and few clouds. The parking lot was empty except for the Border Patrol radar vehicle. We promptly got on the trail and were passed by two uniformed USBP agents (one was not wearing his cap) and 30 minutes by a young man who bagged both Miller and Carr. He was going at a good pace. I remember being that fast twenty years ago.
Sadie was the hiking dog today but I probably could have taken Zeke along, too. "Where's Zeke?" asked Holly. Zeke loves everyone and everyone loves Zeke. The trail was void of people and he would have been fine. My only concern was carrying all the water. The trail has 3.5 miles of exposed and open trail. It's been done while overcast and cool.
I didn't sleep well again the night before and fatigue played a roll in my slow start. Starting elevation is 6562'. The first two miles meander along the hillside rather steeply, gaining close to 2000 feet in those two miles, all facing the sun. I had to stop three times briefly, and even Holly said that was unusual for me. It just goes to show that I need more elevation training. Speed is great, but elevation needs to be incorporated into our weekly workouts. Now that it's getting warmer, it's going to be hard to find someone to train with.
The trees that did not burn in the 2011 are showing drought stress again. The leaves on the gamble oaks are turning yellow, the first sign of drought. We need rain! Even the photos I took look blah because of lack of green. The El Nino for this part of Arizona has been a disappointment. We had more rain last winter and spring. So it was no surprise that we saw such few wildflowers today, save for purple lupine, pink penstemons, and small yellow flowers in the higher elevation. Lack of any rain also prevented any sightings of wildlife. Sadie spotted a few white-tailed deer (but gave no chase), and three ravens circled around us once we got to the peak, but the heat and lack of water kept animals away.
All the snow is off the trail except for a small patch of iced snow that Sadie bit into on the spur trail to the peak. There was a larger bank of snow on Miller's north end, but that was off the trail. I had plenty of water for Sadie, though. When we got to the top 4:43 hours from the start, we were surprised at how little wind there was. We had brought our jackets but didn't wear them until we started getting cold from the sweat down our backs.
Getting back down was more painful. My toes were expanding and Marlenea's feet were hurting in her shoes. She really slowed down with three miles to go, and that's when the heat started getting to Sadie. I rested more with her in the shade, and with two miles to go she was looking sun exhausted. By then she didn't want to drink. I was a little worried here, told the gals to go on ahead, but then realized that wouldn't help matters, as the heat of the day was still ahead and I wanted Sadie out of the heat. That second-to-last mile going back down, which is also the steepest mile on the hike, was the most brutal as we didn't get any shade again until that last mile to the finish line. Sadie jumped right into the truck.
We met two AZT thru-hikers starting out, two gals from Phoenix: FireCracker and SaltLick. They were trekking uphill rather quickly, too, and the young man who bagged both peaks beat us back as well. The parking lot was packed by now. I was glad to be back home by 3:30pm. The hike was 7:30 hours. It's not my slowest time, but also not my fastest.
No comments:
Post a Comment