Rees Peak, Kachina Peaks Wilderness, May 2012
I did a little more wilderness exploring up on Rees Peak on Sunday, about nine miles of tough off-trail hiking and climbing. This time I took a slightly different route and avoided most of the old Bear Jaw burn area (see my last post on Rees). Instead of trying to find my own path through the riot of aspen regeneration and wild rose I poked around the base of the mountain until I found an elk trail that led me up through the worst of it. The trail was obviously not built to human specifications and it got very hairy at the upper end, but the elk know that mountain from top to bottom and they've figured out all the best routes.
Rees Peak, Kachina Peaks Wilderness, May 2012
Despite the help from the indigenous quadrupeds I was turned around by residual snow drifts at about 10,900 feet. The top was still a third of a mile and some six hundred vertical feet away. I thought about pushing on through the snow but knew it would only get deeper as I climbed higher. I wasn't really expecting to make it to the top so early in the season so I wasn't too disappointed. Actually, I was surprised I made it as high as I did.
I'm fine with not making it to the top of Rees -- or any of these mountains for that matter. If I bag a summit during one of my ramblings that's great. If I don't that's okay too. At some point I realized that most of the really interesting and neat stuff to see on mountains isn't at the summit at all, but rather around the flanks, in the foothills, and in the experiences you collect in just being there. In some ways I think hiking a mountain just to get to the top should be looked upon as a form of disrespect, like rushing through an art exhibit to buy M&Ms at the gift shop.
Rees Peak, Kachina Peaks Wilderness, May 2012
Rees is not the highest or the steepest of the prominences making up the San Francisco Peaks, but it's rapidly becoming my favorite. The forest up there is deep and dark, filled with shadow and mystery and stillness. I have a couple more hikes on Rees before I move my explorations a little to the west to meet Aubineau Peak and ultimately north Humphreys. And then... well... let's just say that things get a little hazy after Humphreys.