Summits, Ancient Trees and Darkest Skies

I summited my first mountain today, 13,063 foot Wheeler Peak in Great Basin National Park.  

I’ve never been compelled to climb mountains. I’ve always loved to run but hiked begrudgingly, until I bought my first pair of hiking boots a year ago before we set off on an excursion to southern Utah, where I learned to love hiking.

Tuesday morning, Lisa and I set off to hike the 8.6 mile Wheeler Peak trail and had agreed to turn around when we needed to; getting to the top was not necessarily the goal. Somewhere along the way it became clear to me that I wanted to climb to the top, not because it was the end point of the hike, but because it felt like a fitting ending to our old life in SF and a fitting beginning to our new chapter on the road. Lisa stopped at 12,000 ft., and we agreed that I’d continue on. It was about a mile more up a scree field at a 40 degree incline, but I made it and am so happy I did. Hours later, I am still saying, “I can’t believe I did that today.” It was big. 

We have been camped in Great Basin National Park in eastern Nevada for a of couple days. It’s our first national park of the trip! There are very few people here, and the park is amazing, so while we are glad it is a hidden gem, folks are missing out.  It’s one of the dark sky parks, as certified by the International Dark Sky Association.  There is no light pollution up here so when we got up at 2am to look at the stars we could even see the Milky Way. 

Great Basin also has groves of my favorite tree, the Bristlecone Pine.  I’d never heard of them until we visited Cedar Breaks National Monument last summer.  They are the oldest multicellular organisms on the planet, and grow only in the southwest above 9500 ft. in dry, nutrient poor soil. They grow very slowly and are highly resinous so they don’t decay when they die, just remain standing in their crazy sculptural forms for thousands of years.  The trees in the grove we hiked to were 3000-4000 years old. It is breathtaking to stand in their twisted shadows with the knowledge that they sprouted in 1500 B.C.E. and are still growing. 

We've loved our visit here, and will descend the mountain tomorrow for supplies & our next adventure, wherever that may be.

This particular tree was born in 1230 B.C.E. and is still living.