Paul certainly loves mountain tops. Conversely, he really hates getting close to a mountain top, but being forced to head back without scaling it. So when he asked me to hike up to Mount Magnificent, the last of the popular mountains in our neck of Eagle River that we hadn't climbed, I knew that I had to mentally commit to really and truly reaching the peak. We'd put it off because, well, there are alot of little mountains that you have to climb before you get to that last BIG one. So....a good workout...and true love : )
I'm not a mountaineering girl at heart. I'm not motivated by peaks. But I do love Paul, (and taking pictures of this amazing state, so that helps : )
The day was long, but the conversations were good and the look of contentment and satisfaction on Paul's face when we finally reached the peak made the effort worthwhile.
There were too many pictures to just dump into FB, so I thought I'd congregate them here for easy viewing! I hope that you enjoy!
The hike begins by switchbacking up the mountain side through a birch woods, until reaching the saddle (a break between two mountains.) From that saddle we headed right, ascending the first of three no-name peaks on the way to Magnificent. We saw some beautiful bright green lichen (so green!) and a sage grouse (can you find her? She makes a sound that reminds me of a pig's snort : ) You might recognize this panorama from our home page, this is as far as we made it one day with the kids.
From there we head up and over two more no-names. In the picture below, you can see our destination, the second peak from the left. (A long way off!) Stopped along the way to look back down into the Eagle River Valley, the place that we are blessed to call home right now.
Then we reached Mt Tucker, where another set of shaley, slippery thigh-burning switchbacks waited for us. It was lovely : P Paul turned on some worship music at this point. I think it helped me maintain my sanctification : )
With Tucker blessedly behind us, we crossed from her base to the base of Mt Magnificent. While viewing her from the bottom, Paul and I decided that it was very unlikely to be snow free along the normal trail. So we made the decision to hike down and then back up, in order to avoid the snow fields we assumed stretched all the way to the top (the blue line below...which added about an hour of hiking.) Imagine our chagrin when, when descending, we discovered that the ridge trail was not only clear, but wonderfully short (that orange line there.) Haha! Oh well. Live and learn. Stick to the trail. There's a sermon illustration there somewhere. Anyway, after dubiously watching Paul try to traverse a snow field only to posthole up to his thigh, Liz decided to take the few extra minutes to go fully AROUND the snow.
The last picture is from our vantage point above the snow. From left to right you can see where we've been, Tucker and then three no-name peaks that end with the saddle where we started. Phew, now, onto the peak!! Magnificent famously has three "peaks" with the center one being the tallest. The last leg of the hike became increasingly "sketchy" (as my Dad would say) and I slipped once on the narrow trail because of some snow melt. That was a tad unnerving. I walked even more carefully after that - so carefully that I didn't even take any pictures of that last ascent! (Now that's caution!)
I have to say, the final moments at the peak were hilariously interrupted by a frantic call from our son who was trying to get on his final Zoom call of the school year. With technology the way it is and cell signal strong at the top of mountains, a parent's job is never done : ) But that technology also allows me to make my normal Facetime call to Mom - so she can virtually "hike" with me : ) Nonetheless, our time was short at the top, as we saw some snow headed our way.
As we made our way back down the "sketchy" stretch (snapped that one pic of Paul there!) and then along that lovely (SHORT) ridge trail back towards Mt Tucker, we were able to safely cross a snow field and enjoy a look back from the peak we'd just left (top left of the picture.) Also, during an "I-must-sit-down-and-breathe" moment, I snapped a picture of these cuties. I'm always amazed by the plant life on mountain sides! Anyway, the views we saw on the way down were fantastic.
And that was that! We hustled our way back, slipping a few time because we were rushing to beat the weather (turns out, it wasn't the snow that caught us, but the rain coming in from the other direction! Ha! Couldn't win.)
We made it back the car in just under 8 hrs. Made about 3.5k in elevation gains, the summit was 4.2k high and RT the hike was 7.5 miles—our longest hike to date. We beat most of the rain and made it home muddy, sore, but having reached the peak. Yay!
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