AUG 1, 2024 THU 9:40 am

28C/82F | Sunny | 33% humidity | 6,130ft highest point

My first time getting back into solo hiking since I got sick at the beginning of July. Feels good to be back. My usual Wednesday hike plans were canceled yesterday due to all-day water heater replacement (???) so I had planned to go today instead.

However, I woke up this morning and opened the window to find that it was another day of poor air quality due to Canadian and local wildfires. This has unfortunately been a common occurrence in the summer here.

I decided to go anyway, because this would be my only chance to hike all week. On the drive up, I passed the local fire danger sign, which was turned all the way up to the maximum “EXTREME” state. Uh, I ignored that.

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By the time I got to the trail, the mountains, which were almost completely invisible from my house, were not looking half bad. Still more faded than usual, but it was a look. The air still smelled like a truck stop, though. The Weather Channel advised that nobody do any significant exertion outdoors today, so I intended to reduce my pace. I shouldn’t have been out at all, but whatever.

Also, I finally located the Royal Arch, which I climbed up to on a whim in June (and nearly died of thirst on the way back because I wasn’t prepared – DON’T DO THAT). It’s the little upwards protrusion in the leftmost rock face in the photo above. I had been trying to find it from ground level for months – it seems to camouflage against the backdrop of the taller cliffs in the back until you get close. When I was in the Arch, looking out from it, I thought I was seeing the back side of the Devil’s Thumb in front of me. Turns out, the Devil’s Thumb (prominent in the right side of photo) is much further back, and actually dwarfs the Arch in size. It is MUCH bigger than I initially thought.

Edit: No, that is NOT the Royal Arch!! I was way off. Not even close. Do not trust anything I say about where something is. I have no sense of direction. The actual Royal Arch is not even on the same mountain.

Sighted a number of birds on this hike, which is always a plus. Hopefully you can click to enlarge these photos – if not – well.

I chose this trail for today because it’s usually jam-packed, but I knew that with the smoky air, there would definitely be room for me at the parking lot. I was right. Not including the three groups of random college student looking, hard hat wearing, trail maintenance doing people, there were only three other hikers on the trail. Every time I passed one, I thought: “Hi, fellow idiot hiking in dirty air and extreme fire weather”.

Despite the air quality, the hike was very enjoyable. I’m glad I went.

I’m particularly fond of the scenes with distant land appearing very faded. An upside to the smoke.

And, to save the best for last: the Flatirons.

I can’t get enough of them. I probably stood there staring for a full five minutes. I must have been so motionless that I appeared to be a plant, because a hummingbird came out of the trees and tried to feed on me, which scared the shit out of me. Anyway, I was reluctant to continue, as I would have my back to the mountains as I turned onto the second half of the trail.

That is often something I think about: the direction you choose to hike a trail matters, because it affects the view (which is arguably the most important thing about a trail). Do I want the mountain view on the outbound (first) half, or the return half? (This doesn’t make sense in retrospect) Most of the time, trails have completely unique views, and therefore completely unique experiences, hiking it one way versus in reverse. Many times, I don’t even recognize parts of a familiar trail because of this. Although there is a massive selection of excellent trails within driving distance of me, I tend to go to the same handful due to convenience and “crowd avoidance”. So, it helps to alternate between forwards and reverse hiking to prevent getting tired of the same trails!