My Journey

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

The views from up there were nice.....





.....on the descent we took the time to explore a bit & check out several of the caves that are so common in Beaver Dam Wash National Conservation Area.....





Such a great first week on the road.....I finished my first book and what a fantastic book it was.....



Reading, hiking, climbing, falling down and relaxing best describes Week One on the road.....





.....and a few light snowfalls.....



Meanwhile back at the cabin.....

 

[ITTOG]

That first pic with the grey moon fading into the grey clouds is beautiful.

Looks like you got out of MT just in time. Those temps would definitely keep you inside a bit more than usual.

 

[Ace Brown]

You stated that Tanner is the one that poses on top of your peaks. But where is Trapper at that time? Is she camera shy?


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Riversdad]

Tanner is truly photogenic. Does he realize he's an internet star?

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

ITTOG.....it's good to be back on the road again.....

Ace.....Trapper typically lies down as soon as we reach a summit.....just recently I posted a picture of her with Tanner on a summit (I don't recall the mountains' name).....but she's always with us.....

Riversdad.....the three of us are low key, as were Yukon & Montana.....the only stars in our lives are the ones that we enjoy seeing overhead when walking under the dark skies.....we're only here to share our story.....



On the ninth day of the trip, we continued our push down the highway towards the desert southwest.....we spent an afternoon in Henderson, Nevada loading up on groceries, propane, & diesel, grabbed a hot shower and took the extra time to have a good restaurant meal. Then we passed through Lake Mead National Recreation Area to dump the camper waste tanks and to fill the 30 or so water bottles that we carry in the Jeep.....we continued on late into the
evening, and after driving nearly an additional 100 miles, we arrived at the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument.....

Now I'll tell the next part of our story in two separate posts.....one today & one later this week.....one I'll call The Climb and the other I'll call The Camp....


The Climb.....

I was super stoked that first morning as I prepared for our climb of Spirit Mountain (5,639').....this summit I've wanted ever since I became aware of this magnificent mountain.....

"Time to go" says my climbing team.....



We proceeded to the trailhead which is located on the east side of Christmas Tree Pass.....



Initially the route begins along a rather lazy hiking trail.....covered in various varieties of cacti.....which of course made the trail rough going for the dogs.....





The trail crossed two ridgelines, and after several miles of hiking, the trail then dropped down quickly into a shade covered ravine.....and from that ravine, the real work commenced.....







Now we began the nearly straight up climb to the summit of Spirit Mountain.....



I found that staying on route was difficult.....rock cairns lined the route but there weren't enough and we often found ourselves off route .....



.....and when that happened, steep, challenging climbs usually followed (the pictures above & below show off route rock & consists of maybe 50 feet of near vertical climbing on rock slabs).....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

We continued to climb upwards.....passing by numerous rock walls that must have been no less than several hundred feet high.....





The climbing.....it was outstanding.....and about as challenging as anything that I'm capable of these days.....





Near the summit, we hiked across a beautiful ridgeline and the views to the east were astonishing......the winter fed waters of the Colorado River flowed by the base of the mountains.....





Just short of the summit.....less than a few minutes away.....we stopped short. Spirit Mountain is known to be a scared mountain to the many tribes that have inhabited this area for centuries.....and there is debate as to whether or not it is appropriate to actually stand on that summit. My choice was to honor their beliefs.....far more important than the actual summit.....



We sat a short distance away from that summit, my sweaty back leaned up against a rock wall.....and the three of us sat there, drinking still cool bottled water and eating a few treats that we'd brought along. Beauty beyond words, solitude, and silence too.....that is what we found on that mountaintop.....and really, that experience was best described as indescribable.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

The Camp.....

Well, I actually just have realized that I don't have all that much to say about The Camp.....

We camped here for 4 glorious days in complete solitude.....not one other single camper was seen anywhere along the road. That first evening after having climbed Spirit Mountain, was spent in the truck camper nursing a pulled lower quadricep muscle in the left leg.....suffice it to say that I couldn't go far that evening.....



Spirit Mountain had taken it's toll on me.....



Fortunately we had an amazing sunset to end our amazing day in the mountains.....







The weather forecast for that night had not been great.....rain & high winds were to come.....



.....but instead we got snow.....and the predicted high winds.....



The following day we made an early morning walk / limp up to Christmas Tree Pass in that cold, brisk winter air.....





Surprisingly the skies began to clear sooner than predicted so we decided to stay for just a few more days as I needed to start the healing process with my newest mishap.....and I guess that's about it for Avi Kwa Ame National Monument.....

 

[halseyt]

thanks for those sky pics

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

halseyt.....many more to come.....



After two weeks of cold camping, I'd had enough of the challenges that come with that.....we were ready to shed the coat, the gloves and the hat, and find some warmer temperatures.....so we drove further south.....

Trapper sports a hat from my 2015 trip to Nepal.....a hat that's now no longer required.....Golden Retrievers are such mellow dogs.....they just don't care about much anything (so the hat).....



We crossed the Colorado River, drove into northwestern Arizona, made a few stops in Bull Head City, Arizona, then crossed the Colorado River once again, and continued driving south.....now driving through California.....



Our next campsite was at the base of Snaggletooth (2,190').....approximately 20 miles south of Needles, California....



We ended up camping here for the next 5 days.....and even more solitude and silence was had.....









The sunrises and sunsets were absolutely stunning during our stay.....I don't think that there was a single boring one during our entire visit.....



Sadly, with the pulled quadricep muscle, we were unable to scramble in those rocks.....they were definitely calling my name.....

 

[YukonMontanaTannerTrapper]

One of the most difficult challenges for me, especially when traveling, is to sit still when I know that there's so much out there to explore.....







We spent so much time while camped here sitting in a chair, reading a book, watching YouTube, and staring out into space.....



Each day was a little better than the day before.....I went from barely being able to put on a boot to actually getting out there once again.....







Slowly I regained my mobility and maybe it was on Day 2 or Day 3 that we started to slowly hike in the desert.....

 

[Ace Brown]

When you can’t go walkabout why not fire up the Jeep and explore the backroads?

 

[Sierra Valley]

When you can’t go walkabout why not fire up the Jeep and explore the backroads?

Thats what I was thinking as well LOL.

 

[longhorn1]

I sure hope Tanners injury isn’t a torn CCL, Cranial Cruciate Ligament rupture (CCL) is one of the most common orthopedic injuries in dogs. This injury, similar to a torn ACL in humans, can come on suddenly or can appear gradually over a longer period. The cranial cruciate ligament helps the stifle (knee) function as a hinge joint. My lab mix went through it years back. It’s surgery and a long recovery with no activity. The vet told us th when one goes the other usually goes within a year, and it did.
good luck.

We faced that with our first lab. ACL and had the $2,500 surgery. Told he would do the other and he spoke the truth. Didn't do the surgery and within a month he seemed to be back to normal. Hope it isn't that.

 

[longhorn1]

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After a good bit of slipping and sliding and second guessing myself, we finally got our summit.....

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But the hardest part of climbing a mountain is not the going up.....it's definitely the going down.....

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I was unable to recreate our route up as I looked for a route down.....mysteriously everything up there looked the same.....

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The difficulty here was that a long cliff band encircled the summit.....and we needed to find a safe route down.....something that became a real serious challenge.....

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Eventually I committed to a route.....down a steep section covered in snow & ice.....

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Probably less than one hundred vertical feet down that mountain, I lost my footing and went into a fall. It wasn't more than ten or fifteen feet that I fell but damn that ride was a rough one.....my right arm was badly bruised and had several cuts from the branches.....my face hit a rock which left me with a black eye.....and my left arm (shown in the picture below) was mangled and the shoulder above extremely sore as well.....

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I guess we all fall sometimes.....

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.....that's just how life goes.....

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Definitely take it easy. Kinda like pulling on the reins of a race horse coming down the back stretch

 

[longhorn1]

The Camp.....

Well, I actually just have realized that I don't have all that much to say about The Camp.....

We camped here for 4 glorious days in complete solitude.....not one other single camper was seen anywhere along the road. That first evening after having climbed Spirit Mountain, was spent in the truck camper nursing a pulled lower quadricep muscle in the left leg.....suffice it to say that I couldn't go far that evening.....

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Spirit Mountain had taken it's toll on me.....

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Fortunately we had an amazing sunset to end our amazing day in the mountains.....

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The weather forecast for that night had not been great.....rain & high winds were to come.....

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.....but instead we got snow.....and the predicted high winds.....

View attachment 815771

The following day we made an early morning walk / limp up to Christmas Tree Pass in that cold, brisk winter air.....

View attachment 815772

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Surprisingly the skies began to clear sooner than predicted so we decided to stay for just a few more days as I needed to start the healing process with my newest mishap.....and I guess that's about it for Avi Kwa Ame National Monument.....

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Beautiful photos