Because It's There

I always thought the response "because it's there" was a crazy answer to the question "why did you climb the mountain?" But over the past five years I have come to understand "Because it's there" just acknowledges that something has challenged you and, no matter how crazy it seems, you have to do it.  I ran solo across Badlands National Park. I also ran the 45 mile Eagle Rock Loop in Arkansas solo in 15 straight hours. I went scuba diving in a 500' deep lake fed by glaciers and snow melt where the water temperature at the surface on July 5th was 40 degrees.  All my life I had found it necessary to "play it safe" because I had a family to consider. That ended when my children all had their own families and I was on my own. Today Pamela and I travel the west, volunteer at national parks, and pack all the life we can into every day. You only go around once. No returns for the I-wish-I-hads. 

Bright red is my route up. Burgundy is my route down with fewer cacti.

Today I was just out looking for some gemstones on the side of the mountain. I kept getting attracted to natural features further and further up the mountain. Before I knew it I was standing at the top of one of the peaks. Granted that the climb was just a wee bit over 1,000 ft above the campground, and my friends who are real mountain climbers wouldn't consider this more than a stroll, I don't think it was bad for an arthritic old man. I ended up taking the hard way up because I wasn't really planning to go to the summit. I wasn't as worried about falling as I was of hitting all the cacti on the way down, so I took a much longer route down that had less cacti.  When I got close to the top it became a matter of "because it's there." 

 The picture above makes it look like a gentle grade on even terrain.  As you can see from the two pictures to the left, that isn't exactly true. I was off trail and had to contend with all sorts of obstacles.

The picture to the right is of my final ascent to the saddle which was just before the rock-climb to the summit.  I did not go back this way. LOL.

To the left is a selfie as I was just below the summit. I didn't try to get a picture right at the top because it was pretty windy and I didn't want my hat to beat me back to the bottom.

The picture to the right is the last 20-30 yards climbing over large boulders. It wasn't quite as bad as it looks. They were large.

Another selfie near the summit. I picked this one because you can see the valley below. The valley is about 4200 ft elevation. The campground where I started is 4600 ft. The summit is 5,680 ft. 

The mountain is one enormous gemstone. I saw obsidian outcropping the size of a pickup and walls of Jasper. The park lets you take stones but there is a weight limit. I see why.  

To the left are some stones with great examples of Jasper  and stratification. The picture to the right is an outcropping of obsidian. This isn't the biggest, but the one I encountered that was the size of a pickup was toward the top of the mountain and I rather had my hands full.