atahualpa domain was triggered too early. This is usually an indicator for some code in the plugin or theme running too early. Translations should be loaded at the init action or later. Please see Debugging in WordPress for more information. (This message was added in version 6.7.0.) in /home3/aboarddi/public_html/blog/wp-includes/functions.php on line 6114Just to get the record straight, getting to the top of Humphries Peak, the highest point in Arizona, was Ben’s idea.\u00a0 We could see the peak each day from our classroom and he wanted to stand on top of it.\u00a0 That being said the rest of us wanted to go so that got us going.<\/p>\n
This morning we woke up extra early and started breakfast at 6am.\u00a0 We were on our way by 6:30am and arrived at the trailhead by 7am.\u00a0 The trailhead is at over 9,000 feet and the one way trip 4.5 miles with a 3,300 feet rise in elevation.\u00a0 While light, we were not in sunlight when we began our trek.\u00a0 Very quickly we realized the altitude was going to make this difficult.\u00a0 We are all soon feeling a little woozy and experiencing headaches.\u00a0 We soldiered on ignoring the lessons recently learned which was to go back down.\u00a0 We did slow down our pace and took it very easy.<\/p>\n
On the way up we met four people from our course.\u00a0 The first was Don who had hiked up and ‘camped’ under a tarp the previous evening and had caught sunrise from the top.\u00a0 Close to the top we met a group of three.\u00a0 At this point the winds were quite brisk and very cold.\u00a0 Fortunately, at the top windbreaks had been built from rocks so we were able to sit in these and shelter from the wind while warming up and eating snacks and drinking water.\u00a0 The views were better than anticipated and we were all pleased we’d made the effort to get up there.\u00a0 Our original estimates were three hours up and two down.\u00a0 It actually took us four and a half hours to get up due to the difficulty of climbing at that altitude.\u00a0 We figured we’d make up on the way down but were wrong again.\u00a0 The descent went on forever and seemed a lot longer than the way up.\u00a0 Ben reckoned we must have been spaced out on the way up which made it feel shorted.<\/p>\n
We eventually got back to the car by 2:30pm, much later than our anticipated noon.\u00a0 We stuck to our plan and drove to meteor crater.\u00a0 It was great to see but we were less than impressed with the exhibits as the science was a bit inaccurate to say the least.\u00a0 We didn’t stay long as we were all quite fatigued from our earlier exertions and I developed a severe headache – a sure sign of altitude sickness.<\/p>\n
So here are a few pics from today’s day off :<\/p>\n