| | -
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
-
| |  |
|
2 |
|
| | |
|
| Hiking | 4.69 Miles |
2,021 AEG |
| | Hiking | 4.69 Miles | 2 Hrs 35 Mns | | 2.01 mph |
| 2,021 ft AEG | 15 Mns Break | | | |
|
|
| |
| Linked |
|
none
[ show ]
| no linked trail guides |
| Partners |
|
none
[ show ]
| no partners | | This week was my annual trip to Vegas for the annual Western Petroleum Marketers Association conference, which is a big deal in the oil industry. Basically all I have to do is make my nightly Trophy Wife appearances at the dinners, and my days are free to do whatever I want. Since I don't play well with the other oil industry wives (spas and extravagant shopping trips aren't my thing), I chose to hike both days.
I headed out to Red Rock Canyon first thing Monday morning. I'd been out here before, but had never really hiked any of the trails, so Turtlehead Peak was first on my list. I parked at the Sandstone Quarry parking lot and got started. The first mile or so was pretty easy with a steady, but fairly gradual incline. I saw some burros, and a lot of jackrabbits. After about a mile, the trail starts to get steeper and rockier. Trail signs gave way to green dots spray painted on the rocks. Close to the saddle, it appeared that I had two choices to reach the saddle--continue straight up while climbing over some rocks, or head up some switchbacks that approached the saddle from the left. Neither option looked more difficult than the other, so I chose the switchbacks. Once at the saddle, the trail continued up the backside of the peak. At this point, it was pretty much just choose whichever trail you wanted to follow to the top. Everything led to the same place, so it didn't matter. I stayed on the trails mostly to the left (east) as the looked a little smoother. This ended up bringing me to the summit slightly from the east, so I had to head west a couple hundred feet to get to the very top.
Just as I had reached the cairn at the summit, I said Hi to another woman who was standing next to it, and I started to look at the rocks out over the edge. There's a small outcropping about 20' below the summit that stuck out about 20', with some little paths that led down there. I had decided to climb down there, and was still chatting with the woman, when suddenly from the west an old (WWII era?) plane started flying towards us. Before either of us could really react, the plane flew RIGHT BY us, so close I could clearly see the pilot in the cockpit as if he had been standing right next to me. The other woman said "He was 10 feet away!!!" I replied, "Maybe more like 30 feet." Her answer was "He was closer than that. If you had already climbed down to those rocks, his wing would have hit you." And she was right. Suddenly I didn't feel like climbing down there anymore, so I took some pictures and headed back.
The hike back down was a little slippery below the saddle--lots of sand and loose gravel, but uneventful. By then, there were a lot of people headed up and I was glad to have beat the crowd. Fun little hike, and a good workout for only four and a half miles. |
| _____________________
| Stop crying and just go do the hike. |
| | |
|
|
|
|
|
| |
Route Editor
Route Scout
