Day Hikin'

Sometime in 2006 or 2007, I decided I wanted to hike California’s Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the lower forty-eight states.

Why?  Years of percolating curiosity.  I traveled a lot as a kid.  My parents always made sure our family loaded up in the minivan and left the state of Arkansas for a week or two every summer.  Somewhere along the way, at a fairly young age, I saw mountains.  Real mountains—no disrespect intended toward the beautiful Ouachitas and Ozarks here in my home state.

I could write forever about travel—quality, meaningful travel that allows both body and mind to explore—being as important to children as developing a love for reading…  But I’ll go into that on a later date.

I hiked Mount Whitney (14,505') in one day during the summer of 2008.  The experience was a game changer.  The trek was twenty-two miles roundtrip.  The miles and elevation gain did a workout on this young flatlander who hadn’t really known what he was getting into, and I was exhausted to the point of being nearly catatonic when I finished.  But I felt like I’d done something, somehow, very meaningful--to myself.  If I were a wordsmith like Byron or Wordsworth, I’d have composed a hundred pages of blank verse about my experience in the Sierra Nevada that day.

Telescope Peak, Death Valley, California

Let me say this: when you’re driving along or through the Rockies or the Sierras, what you see from your car window is undoubtedly beautiful.  But you’re not really seeing the mountains.  Only by putting on your backpack, lacing up your shoes, and picking your way up through the trees to the upper slopes and the high ridges beyond can you gain proper perspective on the enormity and the beauty of the mountains.  Only then do you actually see them.

I returned to California again the next summer.  This time I hiked to the top of Death Valley’s tallest summit, Telescope Peak (11,043').  Telescope was much, much different than Whitney.  The sheer granite walls and blue alpine lakes of the Sierra Nevada were now the wooded slopes of the Panamint Range, rising from the Death Valley salt flats.  Ancient bristlecone pines lined much of the trail.  And there was pure solitude.  Whitney is always well-trodden, especially in the summer months, so much so that you must win a lottery to gain access to the main trail.  On Telescope, I think I saw one other hiker.   

The next summer, I gained the summit of Charleston Peak (11,916'), the highest peak in the Spring Mountains, just west of Las Vegas.  And in 2011 I began to focus on the Rocky Mountains in Colorado, specifically the Sawatch Range.  With Leadville as home base, I’ve thus far tackled the Rockies’ three highest peaks: Elbert (14,440'), Massive (14,428'), and Harvard (14,421').  The mountains in the Sawatch Range are true giants and are perfect hiking mountains.  There’s a fun bit of boulder scrambling near the summit of Harvard, but for the most part, in the Sawatch Range, it’s all about putting one foot in front of the other.

Mount Elbert from the Arkansas River Valley

Gaining some of the highest, most beautiful peaks in our country requires only a good pair shoes and a healthy dose of willpower.  Many of them can be done in a day.  This is not to say that you should take the mountains lightly-- do proper research, get early starts, don't get caught on a high granite ridge in the middle of a late afternoon thunderstorm....  But enjoy them.  They're very accessible.  

And they're there.

God raised up one heck of a playground on the entire western half of the lower forty-eight, and most of it is available to anybody at any time.

Get out there and explore.

It might awaken something in you that the gym is perfectly content to let lie.  

Note: Photographs are my own.  And I have many more, as well as much more information about any of the mountains or trails mentioned in this post.  Comment on this post, email me ( mnsebourn@hotmail.com), contact me via my website ( www.mitchsebourn.com ), or find me on Twitter (@mnsebourn) if you'd like to chat about mountains... or, well, anything else (within reason).

Next Note: The hike up Telescope Peak inspired my short story "Badwater," available for the Amazon Kindle.