That one hike.

[Jim]

Here is some drivel, or some waxing nostalgia.

What is the one hike you can't imagine your life to be without, or can't imagine your life to have been without? If you have one, that is. It is the hike, where you look back at it, or look at today, and realize that without it, you would have been lost, bewildered, scared, and without hope. Well, maybe that goes too far. Maybe it isn't even the best hike in the state, or area, or world, or where ever, but it was or is the hike you remember most fondly, and it may have had a huge impact on your life. Maybe it was your best hike, or your favorite, despite what negative (gasp) things others would say about it.

If you notice my current signature, you can guess mine. Despite what many people may have thought 4 or 5 years ago, it isn't Humphrey even though that had a big impact on me and sent me off on many trips to other places that were great, it really is Mount Elden. That, for a number of reasons, is the one hike I can't imagine the period from 8/2006 to 9/2011, and really to 10/2012, to have been without. Even when I became sick of it, I always came back to Elden, and really, except during windy spring, it was great. Even during spring it could be great, I just tended to not like the wind. Since moving from northern Arizona in 10/2012, I use Elden as my rod by which I measure all potential candidates for routine hikes. If I were Sinéad O'Connor, I would sing to it, how nothing compares to....no, no, NO! I wouldn't do that. Ha! Seriously, though.

Even after moving to Kayenta, where there were few hikes, or to Alamogordo, where I did the A Trail and Ortega a lot and they became my routine hikes, I never found quite the level of attachment or enjoyment that I did with Elden, and as I used Elden as my gauge to judge other potentials by, I found these two to be about 2/3 as good, most of the time. The A and Ortega are just a little to long to do fast, and I could have found another potential hike such as Goat Springs since that was very nice, and the ATV use nature of the A really cut back on trail enjoyment. If nothing else, Elden could go fast. I forgot how well I used to do on that trail, and it was about perfect for me and what I can do quickly as an excercise hike. I could enjoy it slowly for fun, and it had options to tack on loops to further places, and if you were crazy enough, you could go to Humphrey from there, too.

What is your one hike, that might be like mine?

[Sredfield]

This one, among others ...
http://hikearizona.com/trip=10218

[hippiepunkpirate]

The mountain rises almost 25K feet from its base.

Must be Mauna Loa.

[big_load]

I can't choose. It's always the next one, or the one after that.

[JimmyLyding]

Icehouse Canyon, March 29, 2008. I had spent most of 2005-2007 in Tucson for work before being transferred to the Valley. I remember almost crying on my last hike in the Santa Catalina as a Tucson resident, and worrying about not having easy access to a mountain that soared from cactus to pine.

I checked out Icehouse Canyon on a lark, but I was excited because it seemed as if such a hike could only be 90 minutes from my pad in central Phoenix. I got to about the beginning of the switchbacks that formed the upper 1/2 mile of the Icehouse Canyon trail before chickening out/making a wise decision to not hike the rest through the snow on an unfamiliar trail.

The next week I tried this again with my roommate, and the snow was mostly gone because the interceding week was quite warm. We took Telephone up to Doghouse Spring, then up to Signal Peak and down again via Icehouse. I was hooked. I discovered that I could do 3,000' AEG, and still have a great time. In fact, the next 8 or so hikes I did in the Pinals that went from the bottom to the top taught me that such "big" hikes were the goal. Hiking anything less seemed like slacking.

I remember Bob's first HAZ hike there when I was stopping to take pictures as a survival technique. I also remember johnr1 asking me to hike with him in the Pinals because he'd never been in that part of one of the least-known sky islands with someone who knew the area, and then he picked up the check at Chalo's. We'd hiked East Mountain before with the Stiller, and each of our GPS units showed wildly different mileage totals, and he wanted something legit. How much I'd give to hike with Mr. Scott again and eat at Chalo's..... I most certainly remember hustling down Icehouse in a lighting-filled monsoon with Bruce when a bolt of electricity hit a pipe running down Icehouse Canyon and arced about 20' from us which caused me to feel my dental fillings and Mr. Aguila to embrace the largest tree in the general vicinity. I was too far away from any tree worth grabbing so all I could do was observe my surroundings (seemingly in slow motion), and I think the airborne current burned that image of terror into my brain.

What I remember most, however, is the look on my brother's face when we were climbing up up up. The poignant unspoken question, "Are you insane? Why do you do this to yourself?" I guess the answer is why I hike: Because I want to do it, I know I can do it, and I know that the world will be a better place after I do it... The same reason your dogs do it.

[PatrickL]

Gotta' love Goat Camp Trail.

[JimmyLyding]

Its the one I'm looking forward to the most and it sometimes keeps me up at night thinking about it...but alas I still have several years before I can go and a lot can happen before then. The mountain rises almost 25K feet from its base.

[The_Eagle]

I most certainly remember hustling down Icehouse in a lighting-filled monsoon with Bruce when a bolt of electricity hit a pipe running down Icehouse Canyon and arced about 20' from us which caused me to feel my dental fillings and Mr. Aguila to embrace the largest tree in the general vicinity. I was too far away from any tree worth grabbing so all I could do was observe my surroundings (seemingly in slow motion), and I think the airborne current burned that image of terror into my brain.

Hard to forget that one my friend

[JimmyLyding]

Don't forget about the KD7DR-3. Nothing makes the Pinals more important than that tiny bundle of sold-state sensory data acquisition does:

[BobP]

@hippiepunkpirate
Nope... But it is volcano

[chumley]

I still have several years before I can go and a lot can happen before then.

a mountain that I'm passionate about because of its links to my past. One side of my family lived there for several centuries and its kind of like a pilgrimage I'm looking forward to.

I figured it out!!!

map

[paulhubbard]

My first Rim to Rim. We started on the north rim and took 3 days to get to the south rim. I was 18, and my 75 year old grandfather was on his 2nd beer when I hit the top of the south rim having beat me to the top by 45 minutes. That was his last R2R. Lots of memories there.

[fricknaley]

@BobP
34.2 trips up tumamoc hill?

[joebartels]

What is the one hike you can't imagine your life to be without...

A little hike with secluded waterfalls no one knows about. On one hike I waded thirty feet or so across a three foot deep raging creek. Last week I chased three coyotes only to miss 'em by five feet. It's been years since I've hiked it in the snow.

...or can't imagine your life to have been without?

http://hikearizona.com/decoder=18

[The_Eagle]

It's been years since I've hiked it in the snow.

There goes that memory again
and on the one you can't live without

http://hikearizona.com/photo=381828

[Tough_Boots]

Probably a tie between two Supes hikes:

My first trip into Hidden Valley in the Supes was probably a defining hike for me. We made a major error and ended up scrambling down the side of the ridgeline racing the dark down to an actual trail. It was the first potentially dangerous hiking experience I'd dealt with at that point and I was the leading someone else out of there. I'm sure if I did it again now, it would seem like nothing to me but at the time when I was still pretty green it gave me a lot more confidence as a hiker.

The Superstition Ridgeline in clouds. The clouds would sink below the ridgeline and we would look down what looked like an ocean of seafoam surrounding the ridgeline with clear blue above. Then the clouds would rise and we would be left with about 30 feet of visibility for a while. This rising and sinking went on all day. I hike because every once in a while I get to be in the middle of something that most people will never experience.

[joebartels]

@The Eagle Brown's Peak != last week ;)

[azbackpackr]

I guess I thought Jim_H was talking about a hike you do over and over because you like it and it's convenient. I did Flat Top over and over, when I lived in Eagar. But it's just a big hill. As for which hike stands out in my mind, there are so many. South Bass in Grand Canyon was one, not only due to the hike itself, but due to the people I met. It was "Squat Puke's" very first backpacking trip. I was the permit holder, and let him tag along! See what I started! ;) I met him on the internet, too--oooh that's dangerous! I'm still friends with most of the folks who were on that hike, although one of them passed away 3 years ago, totally unexpectedly.

That South Bass trip is remarked upon and remembered by everyone who was on it.

I really want to do North Bass. I'm much more interested in that than I am in Nankoweap. I've been to Nankoweap at the river, and it's overrun with people from the boats. I've been to Bass Camp, a bit of a hike up from the river, at near the bottom of the N. Bass Trail, but haven't done the trail from the rim. I hear it's long and it's tough. You need a week.

I did Bright Angel yesterday to Plateau Point. It will be a long time before I'll do that again. WAY too many people. I had fun chatting with a lot of them, but in the long run it's really not my cup of tea to go hiking with hundreds of tourists. Another one on my Grand Canyon bucket list is Kanab Creek. Also, the Gems. Haven't done that section of the Tonto.

The Sierras always deliver. No Sierras hike is a bad choice, in my opinion, although I prefer a minimum of a week-long loop backpacking trip with lots of lakes and creeks. I am not too interested in high altitude peak bagging, but have done some over my lifetime.

[Jim]

Well, it seems to vary by person, but my original thought was what is or was a hike, when you look back at a period of time, or even over the last few years or so, or perhaps in the past and currently, and you realize it seemed to define you life, or it was the best hike you had and couldn't live without.

[desert_boonie]

All of them.

[KwaiChang]

For me - the one that started it all - nothing too hard about it - I just wasn't prepared AT ALL for it. But IT started the ball rolling. I had "hiked" once before and bagged two of the peaks of the "46" peaks in the Adirondacks in Upstate NY. Nice but walking in the woods don't do anything for me. There are many a folks out there who are 46er's in the summer and 46er's in the winter. Not my cup o tea. I spent all my youth wandering around in the forests and parks behind my parents house in Pennsylvania - never once did I feel lost or frightened - had some friends that were scared crap less but hey that's them.

For me it was 2008 and Bear Mtn was the siren song for me - http://hikearizona.com/x.php?I=4&ZTN=310&UID=52754 - have been back a few times - haven't bothered to triplog each time - I should so I know when I been there - but that was the ball rolling type of thing for me.....now I am starting back to the 46 peaks - 5 hours away versus 50,000 miles away - at least that's how making my way out to the west feels like for me......

Cheops is my next challenge.....need. to. leave. Ansel. at. home.