Mesa Trail #13 on July 19th

From 20090719

It was a fairly long hike over an easy trail. We went up the Northernmost part of 13 and hammocked at the top. From there, we headed South and did the loop that hits the two scenic viewpoints going widdershins. After the first viewpoint the trail went bad on us. It was missing in many places, easily misplaced in others, and plagued with fallen trees just about everywhere. We lost the trail and had to backtrack a few times. It was rather pleasant. Once we made the loop, I took a left, mistakenly believing the fork I wanted was in that direction. It wasn't, but we got extra hiking in as a result.

Once again, the trip down was the worst. We were already tired, and the sun was unbearable. Our conversation drifted from small talk into length discussions about exactly how much water we had left. At some point during this hellish part of the hike, I announced that it was too hard and I should go back to sitting at home stuffing myself full of delicious food and getting all my exercise from playing WoW. Brad reminded me that my goal was to die by the Mountain, and not from diabetes, and he's right. Then I realized that if I didn't bring water on hikes like these that I'd easily achieve my goal.

Overall, it was a decently long hike. The brutal sun was the worst part of it. Again, I hadn't taken enough water with me.

A gallery of a few of the interesting photos follows.