THREE SUMMITS: #3, BLACK MESA IN OKLAHOMA, CAPULIN VOLCANO, AND SUGARITE CANYON

 October 18, 2020

We had one more highpoint to summit on this trip: Black Mesa, the highest point in Oklahoma. One of the interesting thing about this highpoint is that Black Mesa actually extends into Colorado and New Mexico, and the highpoint in both of those other states is higher than the highpoint in Oklahoma (but is not the highpoint in those states).

We left our hotel at about 7:00 AM and drove an hour to the trailhead. When we began our hike just after 8:00, it was only 36° F.  I wrote in my notes that I was wearing 2 pairs of pants, a long-sleeved shirt, a Columbia zip jacket, a down jacket, and Bob's gloves. (Thanks, dear.)

The round trip hike was 8.4 miles, and when we got back to the car at 11:30, it was 39°.  It was cold, but we kept up a quick pace and it wasn't too bad--until we got to the mesa itself.

Just before the gate is this granite bench honoring Jean Trousdale, "Highpointers Foundation Director, Founder of the Club Mercantile, Clinical Psychologist, Mother, Grandmother, Friend." The photo of her with her dog is captioned, "Enjoy the view and have a good hike!"  She looks like someone I would have liked to know.

THREE SUMMITS: GETTING THERE AND SUMMIT #1, PANORAMA POINT IN NEBRASKA

 October 16, 2020

Now that we have been to all 50 states, my husband is trying to "fill in the spaces" on the United States map--traveling to places within the states where we have not been. Since we have been to many of the major cities, that means that he is looking for, shall we say, "out-of-the-way" places to visit. He also is keeping a list of state high points that he has climbed (or driven to). That's how he got the idea to travel to a rather obscure area of the U.S.--the western regions of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Nebraska. He could check three high points off his list and visit a little-known area of the U.S. Perfect.

Looks excitin', doesn't it?

And just to convince you of how exciting this trip was going to be, here is the location of those three high points. Note how close they are to major cities--heck, to any city. They are in Nowheresville.

This is what I was leaving behind. (The mural is in the Ontario Airport.)

We flew from Ontario, California, to Denver, Colorado. The best part of the flight was that we flew directly over the Grand Canyon. If we've done that before, I have not had a window seat on the correct side of the plane. This time, I had a spectacular view.

COLORADO: THE GREAT MUSHROOM HUNT

As I mentioned in my previous post, Bob takes our sons to Colorado every summer to go hiking. Sam, like Bob, enjoys going to the summits, but Andrew is more interested in what can be found below treeline: mushrooms.  His interest in mushrooms began in a botany class at UCLA, and a few years ago he joined the Los Angeles Mycological Society, where he has learned even more about mushrooms at lectures, at fairs, and on field trips.

Andrew and I would follow Bob up to treeline (although sometimes he got there hours before we did), and then for the next four to six hours we would slowly make our way back down to the trail head, searching under trees and bushes on and off trail for, primarily, the somewhat elusive King Bolete mushroom, the most prized of the Colorado mushrooms:

COLORADO SCENERY

I have been buried by work for about the last month.  Not only did the semester start three weeks ago, but I had a HUMONGOUS deadline with the publishing company I work for set for September 9th.  I have been sitting at this desk in front of this computer with my eyes glazed over for far too many hours.  The good news is that Friday afternoon I completed the deadline three days ahead of schedule!

I finally have a few minutes to work on a blog, something I haven't done since August 8th.  That may be the longest I've gone without blogging since I started up this little venture.  We do currently have house guests, but they are self-sufficient and I've slipped away for a few minutes to finish this off.

In early August, Bob and Andrew and I took a five-day trip to Colorado just before school started for me.  This is a trip Bob and Sam and Andrew usually take together, but since Sam couldn't go this year, I was the lucky sub.

Bob's goal on these trips is always to climb as many Fourteeners, or mountains in excess of 14,000 feet, as possible.  There are 68 in the United States, and he has now climbed 30. On this trip, he climbed Quandary Peak, La Plata, and Yale.  (He would have climbed Princeton as well had I not been along, but that's a story for another day.) Because on Bob's blog he writes extensively about his experience on each mountain, I decided my posts about our trip would focus mainly on scenery and people, so this post and the following one will be picture-heavy and text-light.  

Andrew is less interested in bagging a summit than he is in bagging some wild mushrooms, so generally he and I would follow Bob up to tree line (about 12,000 feet in elevation), and then make our way slowly back down the mountain, looking for highly desirable King Boletes, truly the king of wild mushrooms. I'll cover our mushroom harvests in the next post.  

And so, without further ado . . . 

COLORADO: GETTING HIGH WITH MY HUBBY

There's just something about Colorado that makes me want to buy a John Denver CD. Seriously. Maybe it has something to do with the fact that almost everywhere you go in Colorado, from the airport to the grocery store, you see his music for sale and hear his mellow voice crooning songs that you're embarrassed to admit you know most of the words to.

Like all couples who have been married for thirty years, Bob and I celebrated by climbing a rather large mountain for our anniversary. In tribute to Bob and John Denver, I offer the following (You might want to listen to Johnny Boy himself while you're viewing):

"Thank God I'm a Country Boy"Bob in Georgetown, a scenic little town nestled in the mountains.

Leadville, Colorado, the epitome of a country town.

Beautiful flowers everywhere, in spite of near-freezing temperatures at night.

"Quaint" does not even begin to describe our bed and breakfast in Twin Lakes.

This rock was protruding from our bedroom wall. Apparently it was in the way when the basement addition was built, so they just left it and decorated it with mining miniatures. It's about the size of a big screen TV, but not quite as interesting. Didn't I tell ya it was quaint?

Snakes seem to follow Bob around. This dead one was on the Mt. Elbert trail.

Bob loves to be out in the mountains.

"Sunshine on My Shoulder"

The scenery around Leadville and Twin Lakes and on our Mt. Elbert hike was indescribable (but I'll try). The aspen had made the transition to a shimmering, fiery gold. The crisp, autumn air seemed to deepen the rosy pinks of dawn and the deep blues of evening. Rich red ground maples contrasted beautifully with the aspen, creating an unusual luminescence. It was Eden at its most mature.

"The morning breaks, the shadows flee."
This is the glorious dawn we experienced on our drive to the trailhead.

"Country Roads"
"Rocky Mountain High"

Bob and I agreed that Colorado in autumn is one of the most beautiful places we have ever been.

Heading up Mt. Elbert
Spectacular views
At about this point in our hike, we were wishing we had a magic pill that would give us that "Rocky Mountain High" 'cause all we were feeling was intense pain.
It's quite a feeling to be higher than anything you can see. Okay, we had the "Rocky Mountain High"--drug free! (Well, except for significant overdoses of Advil.) In fact, we thought we could hear John singing at this point, and we were humming along. Or were we moaning? I'm not sure. Come to think of it, perhaps it was oxygen deprivation rather than a Rocky Mountain high.

"[I'd Like to Be] Leaving On a Jet Plane"

Near the top of Mt. Elbert, we started to experience some hail, sleet and snow flurries. Here is a picture of some rock-hard hail. Not fun.
The summit marker. Each of the Fourteeners (53 in Colorado, 12 in California, and 2 in Washington State) have one of these U.S. Geological Survey markers pounded into the rock. They are about the diameter of a tennis ball. I think they should be about three feet across! Why didn't they ask me?

On top of Mt. Elbert, the tallest mountain in Colorado (14,443 feet) and the second tallest mountain in the contiguous United States (behind Mt. Whitney, 14,496 feet). Storm clouds were rollling in and we didn't want to be on top when the thunder and lightning began, so we only stayed up there for about 15 minutes. The only thing worse than going up a steep mountain is the descent. About half-way down, I was pretty sure both my knees were about to blow out and we would be paying for helicopter rescue. Bob never took my pleas for rescue seriously, and miraculously, I made it down, even though my knees felt like this:

Luckily, just a few days later I had recovered enough to negotiate these intense switchbacks leading up to Denver's Hammond Candy Factory:
Life with you is one adventure after another, Bob. Happy anniversary. Perhaps I could plan our next one?