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| - My profile headline reads "Yelp is my Diary." And so,
Dear Yelp:
In less than 5,000 characters, I want to reflect on my midlife Birthday present that I gave myself this past March 3. It was the experience of hiking up Frenchman Mountain. This Birthday present would be a metaphor to reaching the summit of my lifespan.
Frenchman Mountain is the beast of Vegas hiking trails. From the Lake Mead Boulevard. trailhead to the conclusion at the radio towers above Bonanza Road there are two summits. Summit 1 is the False summit and summit 2 is the South Summit. This is the equivalent of hiking up a roller coaster with rocks and loose gravel from Bonanza Road/Summerlin Parkway to Lake Mead Boulevard. It is a roller coaster climbing up to 1,600 feet. This is a height above the 1,149 feet Stratosphere. From the time of my Exploration Park review, I mean entree, I have been preparing for the ultimate of Las Vegas hardcore hikes: Frenchman Mountain.
In preparation for my Birthday present, I loaded up on the essentials. They included a knapsack of a frozen gallon of water, bottle water, hiking pole, boots, phone, and prayer.
There is a lot of naughty activity by the trailhead. Looking at Google Streetview I saw graffiti on the utility poles. I made an executive decision to extend the walk 2.1 miles each way from the Hollywood at Lake Mead CVS to the trailhead. This is a shame because this is the Great Unconformity. I would of appreciated learning about the 1.7 billion year old Precambrian granite and schist. Or how the earth plates moved the mountain 50 miles from its existing position.So much for the science lesson. It was time for the fitness lesson.
Frenchman Mountain starts off hardcore. Immediately there is a 700 foot elevation gain to the False Summit. I was tiring from the steep uphill climb on rocks. To achieve my goal of making it to the top, I turned to the same resource that I turn to whenever I am under a big challenge. It is rock & roll. "Believe It Or Not-The Theme From the Greatest American Hero" was the soundtrack tune that got me through the uphill climbs. In reality it was a windy day and I was walking against air. I'd rest after each rotation of the song. I didn't have to work hard. This was my Birthday.
At the end of the climb was the reward for all my effort. It was a steep climb up the South Summit, after a 300 foot drop.
Like a Vegas show, the South Summit is an illusion.It is not as steep as it looks. Just very steep and rocky. I made four stops listening to "Believe It or Not I'm Walking On Air." After the steep ascension there are switchbacks before it levels off. Now with the Las Vegas overlook on the right, there are 2 towers. The second is the conclusion of the hike.
At the spot where Yelper Sarah Jane W. mooned all of Vegas, I stared at the Las Vegas Valley spread out like a carpet below. I had the opportunity to get close ups of the Strip and the Temple off Bonanza Road just below me.It was too windy to get to the Lake Mead overlook.
Going downhill, I turned off the rock & roll. It was too easy for the rocks to make me roll. I believe that the rocks that came close to making me roll include quartz pebbles. If I broke my leg it would be nice to know that the culprit was pebbles that were original igurous quartz crystals that crystallized from magna 1,7 years ago.
The nicest views on the way back were from the False Summit to Lake Mead Boulevard overlooking Sunrise Mountain.People commonly mistake Frenchman Mountain for Sunrise Mountain. This was a view that I appreciated with a hiking pole and boots.
Yelp, Frenchman Mountain is the midlife Birthday present that I will never forget. It taught me that when I set a goal and put my mind to it, that I will achieve it. Frenchman Mountain also taught me that it is not the material things in life that matter. Life is about the experiences.
Signing off on Friday, March 8, 2013 at 11:36 pm.
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