Lone Cone

Well the day to finally make the big move was here. Jacqueline's dad and my dad both came out to help us pack to exit Springdale for Norwood, CO. My dad came with us to drive our U-haul the nine hours. We made it without any problems. When we got to our new home, there was a lot of work to do. The grass was growing out of control. There was wood scattered everywhere. We also had quite a few bees' nests around the house. To add to that, we had to unpack and I had to start work. Without my dad and Jacqueline to get to work around the place, I would have had weeks of work to do. While I figured out how I was going to teach math this year, my dad weed wacked, chopped wood, painted with Jacqueline, while Jacqueline organized the pad. I helped a little in the evening, but I learned how overwhelming the whole process was going to be of teaching six classes my first year teaching.
Eventually on a Saturday, we all took a break. There is one peak that overlooks the town of Norwood and it reaches 12613 feet above sea level. I knew that eventually I was going to have to climb this peak, so why not get it over with immediately. We got all our stuff together, except for our camera which we foolishly left on the porch and loaded into the Xterra. We had some dirt roads to navigate, but with the GPS and some directions we made progress. We made some right turns, but for some reason missed an easy dirt road right in front of our faces and lost some time getting to it. We finally made it and I got a lesson in 4WD as we had to use it for the last four miles. Eventually we found the beginning of the hike and we were on our way.
We started out on an old dirt road that went through the trees. Soon it opened up and we got a good view of the mountain. It looked rather large from where we were standing, but this was definitely a mountain with some depth perception issues as we were already at quite a high elevation. We entered back into the trees heading straight for the mountain. We found ourselves on the eastern side of the mountain, but we knew we wanted to go up the Northwest route, so we had to traverse along the base of the North Face. This was all alluvial deposits from past avalanches and rockfalls. It was downhill, then rocky, then uphill until we hit the ridge. The beginning was vegetated with a bit of scrub, but soon we were above treeline. I was feeling good and the crew was trailing behind. Jacqueline was not a big fan of the steepness and the loose rocks. She was doing well just moving a bit slower than usual. The old man was moving steady. I knew I would never feel this good again coming straight off my season of backcountry. The top kept inching closer and unlike other mountains we could see the actual top. As we swung around, we could see both sides of the mountain dropping away, one steeper than the other. The final push was on and we made the summit. It was only 10:30AM when we stood on top. It was a nice summit with a long view on all sides. Lone Cone is the first peak as you approach the 14ers, but it really did not feel all that big. We had the whole mountain to ourselves on this day, though and we could enjoy the summit. We took some pictures, had our brunch, and were on our way back down. Jacqueline was a little worried about the steepness of the terrain and she was taking her time on the way down. She was half butt sliding, half walking. Eventually we got to less steep terrain and she was a little more comfortable. It was beautiful to be in the mountains, so different than the hundred degree weather we were used to in Zion. Eventually we got down to treeline and had to traverse our way back. We got a little off course, but found our way back to our route. I was using the GPS and while helpful, it did not do the job of a sense of direction. We were back to the car just a little bit after noon with a lot of the day still left to go unpack our house. It was great to spend the day with my beautiful wife and my dad climbing a mountain that we would soon see from our house every day. Soon my dad and my wife would leave me to start my teaching. Jacqueline was going back to finish work, while dad was done being helpful like a good dad can be once he is retired.