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The Boulderfield (Page 2) |
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by Jerry Cates |
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Just north of my campsite, a group of six or seven attorneys from a law firm in Charlotte, North Carolina, had set up camp. I had met them briefly the previous evening, while trying to figure out where to slosh down my bivvy sack. The photo below is of the lawyers scurrying around making coffee and preparing for the day. We got to know each other a little, and it turned out they were going to try to summit this morning, too. They were very friendly, until they found out I was from a city near Austin, Texas, home of the University of Texas Longhorn football team.. They were still steamed about Mac Brown leaving North Carolina and coming to Texas...
My response? Get used to it, people. Mac Brown has a new home. He isn't coming back to North Carolina... They then told me they didn't want Mac back, anyway. Yeah. Right...
All agreed that we'd better get started for the summit soon, to avoid the nasty weather that tends to hit the mountain every day in the early afternoon. The weather changes quickly up here, and you never know what the next few minutes may bring. As proof of that, note the photo above, showing the sudden plume of clouds billowing over the Keyhole. The photo on the previous page was taken less than a minute before, and showed no signs of clouds. If scud like this starts getting darker and darker, that's a bad sign. Fortunately, it passed over quickly, and the horizon returned to its initial state- that was a very good sign. I grabbed a small day-hike pack out of my larger backpack and stuffed it with a few odds and ends for the trek to the summit. After throwing in an extra bottle of water, and an extra bag of GORP, strapping another bottle of water to the right side of my backpack, and a bottle of GORP on the left, and donning a pair of polartek gloves, I was ready to go. Next: The Boulderfield Page 3... Longs Peak Menu ... Bugsinthenews ... Books About Longs Peak |
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