Hiking Humphrey

What five year-old can hike for ten consecutive hours at an elevation of no less than 9,000 feet with nothing but water, red vine licorice, apples, and pudding? That would be Alexandre the Great! I just have to tell Alex how very proud of him I am! Andy took him on the Scout camp out this weekend to Humphreys Peak, the highest point in Arizona north of Flagstaff in the San Francisco Peaks...it is located at a breathless (literally) 12,643 feet in elevation. On Friday evening, they parked at the Snowbowl parking lot and hiked a mile in the dark and set up camp on the side of the mountain. Alex had his backpack with a bottle of water, a change of clothes, and a few transformers action figures. His backpack probably weighed about two or three pounds. Andy carried the rest in on his pack, including two sleeping bags, a tarp, four-man tent, and about 3 gallons of water, in addition to all the food. His pack weighed about 50 pounds. Andy said that they kept sliding downwards in their sleeping bags and ended up waking up with the tent poles bent in the morning due to the slope they were on. Saturday morning, Andy took Alex' backpack and put water and lunch and jackets in it and they began their ascent with the rest of the scouts at 7am. Three and a half hours later, the boys reached the saddle of the mountain, which is a tiny dip before the last ascent past the highest peaks. It then took them two hours to go the last mile and a half above timberline to the summit, where they ate lunch at 12:30pm. Alex got a standing ovation from all the hikers at the top, and although they were happy to rest, the high altitude, scorching sun, biting wind, building thunderhead clouds, and aggressive flying ants were enough to encourage the descent. Many climbers were amazed at how a small little fellow could make the hike, and at least 30 different hikers asked Alex how old he was, followed by, "Wow, you are awesome!" At 2:30 pm, the lightning started popping, thunder started rolling, and the hail started pounding. Andy said that the hail was coming down so hard and being driven by the wind so fast (they were still at timberline) that it hurt when it hit them. They had to go down the mountain fast to hunker down under a blue spruce for cover once a lightning bolt struck several hundred yards away, followed by a thunderous piercing sound that sent both Andy and Alex into a whimpering, quivering fit as if a poodle was being snarled at by an overweight grizzly bear. The wind was strong and then as they hiked down quickly, the hail turned to nearly-frozen rain which drenched them. The wind and wet left Alex's spirits a bit low...so through tears he asked Andy, "If I make it through this hike can I have a new transformer?" HA! I wonder if the pioneer children asked for a similar thing??? Andy told him he could and and they finished the hike at about 5:00 p.m. What a trip! Go Alex! This morning Andy can barely move...and Alex is now jumping off the couch and chasing Aiden around the room. :)



Getting ready to set up camp
Good Morning! Eating a pancake...on the go!
Click on the picture to get a bigger view and you can see the mini-M&M size hail all over the ground!

Above timberline...
At the very top!


(Andy accidentally said Alex was four...he's five and two weeks now :) )