"Go Tell It On The Mountain......"

After the big rain yesterday, it was nice to see the sun back out if full force today! Turned out to be a gorgeous day! The forecast for tomorrow and Friday does not appear to be very good.... more rain and some wind.... :-((

This morning we ran here and ran there and got all our errands done. This left us this afternoon, to go and out and play!


We had talked to some people who do ATV'ing, as to where we could go to hike up in the mountains. One of the places they suggested was Telegraph Pass, which is located just a few miles from the Foothill area where we are staying. We drove through the pass on Highway 8 to get here! The Mountain is part of what is known as the Gila Mountains... (pronounced "hela" ) We were able to drive the motorcycles out to a starting point, but we were still a piece away from the objective. If you look over my shoulder to the right of the picture, you will see some towers up there!


When we parked and headed out it did not look too bad.... ya, right.... It is hard to tell from the pictures, however we were 2 miles from the base of the mountain, and then another 2 miles up...and that was at an average 25% grade! In this picture, I am waving at you all to follow me up, what I didn't know was this was just a little test hill, and we were still a good piece away from the mountain...



We followed the road trail in, and then we had to divert to the smaller trail you see on the left...you can see the towers on top of the mountain...

Ya, we were all smiles when we started.....

About 1/4 the way up, Judy wanted a picture of me and this saguaro cactus.... cool....

I pulled out my big lens and added some zoom to the cactus....


When we got to the base of the mountain, we found a gate that the Companies who put the towers up top installed to keep vehicles out. They built a cement road up the two miles, must have been built by helicopter... This service truck was climbing the mountain to do some work. We talked to the driver who worked for the U.S. Government and was installing a generator on a new tower that will be used for secret communications for the Military!


It was a long climb, that lasted 2 hours.... This picture kind of shows the trail we followed up. We got to this point, and to be truthful, we did not think we would be able to go farther, but we stopped for a rest, and started taking "baby steps"....

Judy, (AKA Eagle...) found this little guy sprouting out of the desert mountain.... the rain from yesterday must of helped.... hard to believe you would see this in such desolate conditions...yes, it was growing out of a cactus plant...

This is a view down one of the canyons as you climb up... we are starting to get there!

We had to negotiate a switch back to get up, and it started to get very rugged... low and behold we came across this saguaro growing out of the mountain.... crazy, it was across a canyon from us, but our Olympus came through with the zoom again...

We are getting there, this is about 3/4 the way up.... huff, huff...

STANDING ON TOP OF THE WORLD..... well, almost....

I thought this was a picture of Judy at the top, but it is not, more like 3/4 the way up, but at least she is still smiling...

Up at the top, there is a bench where you can rest your weary feet and sign a guest book. There are a number of people that are trying to make 500 climbs! One guy completed his 491 today!

This is the view along the top of the Gila Mountain Range, looking south towards Mexico. You can see where someone placed a small white cross on one of the peaks... oh, and no AnnaMarie, I was not wearing my sandals with my white socks today!

This is a nice shot looking due east, towards Phoenix, Az. You can see all the lettuce fields below in what is know as "Dome Valley". Judy and I rode our bikes through that valley on Christmas Day!

Sorry about all the mountain pictures today, but I never get tired of looking at them...

This is only 1 tower installation of maybe 10 up on top. You do not want to get too close, as it is something like standing inside your microwave oven and turning it on high! There were signs warning us to stay away..... we are farther away from this as it may seem, and once again the power of a zoom lens is put to use...

This next shot is cool, it is looking north from the top, and if you remember when we visited "Castle Dome Mine" a few weeks ago, you will know this mountain. I estimate the mountain to be about 35 to 40 miles away from us here, and a bit of a stretch for the zoom....as you can tell, "Castle Dome Mountain" is a landmark in this are, as well as Pilots Knob. More on it later....

Last pic of the day, I promise! Yes, more mountains, and someone planted the Stars and Strips up at the top! Well, the rest of this story goes "down hill" from here..... (sorry, couldn't resist that one)

It was a lot easier going down, a little harder on your feet maybe as you use different muscles in your legs and feet. All in all, it was a blast and we really enjoyed today, or as our good friend, David Reid in Gravenhurst would say, "You took a big bite out of life today!"

Needless to say, we found the hot tub and a cocktail when we got back to the RV..... whew....

Till tomorrow.....