Here's the trail description - "The trail is 8.3 miles one-way, with an elevation gain of about 4300 feet -- from 7600' to 11,918'...and over half the trail is about 10,000 feet. Although the trail itself is excellent, the elevation gain, length and high altitude make it very challenging for most mortals."
Challenging for most mortals, yes, but for those of the immortal Mathews family? (or rather the Stanton family) Mere child's play.
Ok, maybe it wasn't that easy. This picture was taken at the very beginning of the hike, before the beastly switchbacks, before the not-so-flat meadow, and before the completely barren, not so appealing to the eye last mile.
(Back: BJ, Preston, Amber, Front: Me, Ryan) In a nutshell? This hike kicked. my. bootay! By the end my legs felt like lead, and even the slightest downhill grade, or heck even flat ground, was like water after a long draught.
I think Preston's expression captures how we felt by the end.
Well, lest I sound too pessimistic, or too much like a wuss, we did have a fun time on the way up, and we made really good time. And that's without allowing either Preston or Ryan to lead because they're just too fast. 
We stopped a couple of times on the way up to eat some snacks. Well during one stop I walked over to where Ryan was eating his snacks, saw a bag of something, and decided to state for all to hear, "Man, you know what sounds really good right now? Some Beef Jerky Nuggets." Ryan turned his bag around, "Here you want some?" That's when I noticed it said "Beef Jerky Nuggets." Not just regular beef jerky, but it was actually the nuggets! What the random? Everyone thought I had seen his bag and was just not-so-slyly asking him for some, but I swear I didn't.
Me and my bros
While the satisfaction of making it to the top is always enough motivation for me, there was something else we were looking forward to seeing towards the end of the hike...
Just before the final ascent to the top of the peak was this plane wreckage. It came from a C-54 military transport plane that crashed on Nov. 17, 1955. All 14 passengers were killed. What's interesting about this plane crash is the mystery surrounding it. The newspaper reporter responsible for covering the tragedy at the time was told the plane was headed to Indian Springs, NV from California, however Indian Springs had no record of a plane supposed to land there that day. This led the reporter to believe the plane was actually headed to Area 51. His theory seemed to be confirmed by the fact that no one appeared willing to discuss any details of the crash with him.
A family friend, Steve Ririe (he was in our ward before it split, and my mom knew his family, and a couple of his brothers were my dad's roomates at BYU) hiked the mountain in 1998 and came down determined to find out what happened to that plane, where it was going, and take steps to erect a monument there. After getting the run around for a while he was finally allowed access to the formerly classified CIA documents related to the crash (after 40 years the documents can be released). And his research shows that the plane was part of a secret CIA project to develop U-2 spyplanes. But as the number of U-2 airframes being delivered to the test site increased, they had to figure out a better way to transfer Lockheed employees from Burbank to Area 51 without arousing suspicion. So they began regularly scheduled flights of C-54's to the test site. This transport plane crashed only 7 weeks after the program began. Crazy stuff. 
Preston rummaging...
Apparently the year after the crash the Forrest Service requested that, for safety reasons, they blow up the remaining metal parts of the plane, leaving only the aluminum parts (which explains how there could be hardly any rust after 50+ years).
What's really sad is that, as you can see from this picture, 100 feet higher and they probably would have lived. 
(Newspaper article about the crash, and another)
Ok, back to the hike. Seriously? By the time we got to the plane wreckage I wanted to sit down and not move another inch, but but am I a quitter? No siree. We finally made it to the top cause we're like that.
At the top... (notice Ryan's bag? The infamous Beef Jerky Nuggets)
Right before I got to the top another funny thing happened. My friend Becca called me (I couldn't believe I was even getting reception up there, 12,000 ft!). Well, after about 30 seconds of conversation she says, "Where in the world are you, the high desert?! What's with the wind?" HAHAHA!! Actually...yes I am. We about died laughing!
You can see 300+ miles in either direction from the top!
Cousins (Ryan, Preston, BJ, Meghan)
(Meghan, Amber, Ryan, BJ)
Well, we didn't sit at the top for long before we decided to get a move on and start heading down the mountain. The first part we took pretty slow because it was rocky and steep. Well, let me rephrase that, the girls took it slow, the boys maintained a pretty steady pace...
Here they are, way ahead of us, and apparently aware I'm taking a picture of them.
Amber and I bringing up the rear
Then we got to the meadow... and got a little stupid. We decided it was taking too long and decided to run. RUN! And that after the butt kicking the mountain just gave us no less!
Here's BJ and Ryan starting to run...
Well, we ran, and ran, and ran. We ran the two miles through the meadow and kept running all the way down the switchbacks to the bottom!! (Well at least Preston and I did, BJ was wearing sandals)
Preston was ahead of me, but tried a shortcut that didn't work out as well as he'd planned. So as I was going I heard him behind me and turned around to see him climbing down a huge fallen tree trunk in a wash. I laughed at him and kept going. He quickly passed me again though. Then further down the trail I was running down a switchback and heard my name. I looked down to the switchback below me and there's Preston trottin' along with a group of 4 guys. What? Are you doing? Do you even know those people? I thought. What a dork. Well, I guess they were guys in his singles ward :) Anyway, Preston and I made it to the bottom in record time (not verified :)). Running down really did feel great, until we stopped. And the next day, oh boy, I couldn't move! But it was still really fun!
We waited at the bottom, totally pooped, for probably half an hour when a car passed us and made a quick stop. They rolled down their window and saw that it was the Carney's!! And Alli was with them too which was completely a coincidence because she lives in Maryland! Alli ran cross country with me at Centennial. She is just the sweetest person ever and is an awesome runner. We always ran 1-2 on the team and shared hotel rooms on trips. I just love her! She's getting married next year and her fiance was with them so I got to meet him (although I did meet him once before at the Centennial alumni meet). What are the chances we'd both be in town at the same time and meet, of all places, up Mt. Charleston on that particular road? Love it when stuff like that happens.
Stay tuned for The Narrows...
1 comment:
I remember reading this and when Don said he was taking Aubrey up there, I thought he was crazy! She loved the hike, even though she said it was tough! She is proud of herself for doing it.
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