Death March 2009 - To the top in 30 minutes

Everyone in my family loves going to San Diego. During these trips, there were many conversations and topics that would take place. One of these conversations would be between my dad and I during the last 20 minutes or so of the return to Yuma. This conversation centered around a mountain. I would tell my dad that I could make it to the top of that mountain in 30 minutes, no problem. My dad would smile, laugh and offer to drop me off with a stop watch.


So fast forward about 20 years and this is the conversation that I'm having with my son every time we drive past Picacho Peak every other weekend, which is about 20 minutes from Marana. "Mom, I bet you and I could make it to the top of that mountain in 30 minutes." I chuckle, "Sure Ryland, remember Mom is getting older." Ryland, "Whatever Mom, you might not be able to, but I can."




This is the peak. So, I decide to do the thing that my dad never did because he was smart. I take Ryland and we hike it.




This is us before the hike, important to note how happy we are. It's 9:45 a.m.








These are some pictures from the first part of the hike.





So we get about 2 miles into the hike and we hit the main part of the peak. Well, I had forgotten that to get to the top the last mile is basically cables. If you fall underneath the cables you fall off the peak. We make it through the first 2-3 sets of cables, the picture above is the first cables (which I took after coming down off the peak). Notice there are no pictures of the other cables because by the time we hit them I was nervous. When we hit the last cables about 5 minutes from the top, several people had stopped us to tell me that Ry was probably too little to make the steps over the large crevices with the help of the last cables. After about a 30 second conversation, I decided to turn us back around.



This is after the hike...not so chipper anymore, but, Ry did walk the whole ~6 miles by himself.
It's now 2:45 p.m, so much for to the top in 30 minutes.