RETIREMENT TRIP #6

     THIS BODY CLIMBED WHEELER PEAK    

       September 2015      

“You know what’s really interesting?” said Andy, as we packed up this morning. 

I listened, knowing he’d have a cool story at this hour.

“The Bolder Motel and the gas pumps are in Utah.  The casino and restaurant adjoining it are in Nevada. Nobody services the gas pumps, so technically there are no employees for the gas station in Utah.”

He pointed to the state marker right in between the store and the motel rooms.  “I don’t think Nevada has an income tax, so it’s to an employee’s advantage to work in Nevada.  Also, gambling isn’t allowed in Utah, so there the casino would be illegal.”

“And doesn’t time change?” I asked.

He nodded.  “Utah is Mountain Time and Nevada is Pacific Time, so you gain an hour when you walk from the motel to the restaurant next door for breakfast.”

Somebody certainly planned this one, I thought. Oddly enough, the place was here 30 years ago when we climbed Wheeler Peak with the kids.  Then we camped in the park for two nights.  So the clever planning of building on the border was done a long time ago.  But the owner has one clever business establishment!

Starting out on the Glacier Trail in the early morning, we have
miles to cover to reach Rock Glacier in the distance.

Andy read this morning that this year was the driest winter in Utah since they have been keeping records.  He also told me that Las Vegas still wants to build a pipeline in the near future to suck every drop of water out of the Great Basin at a cost of billions of dollars.  They want to tap the water feed before it reaches Great Salt Lake and Lake Powell or maybe even the Colorado River.  It would cost 15 billion dollars, charged to rate payers now before the project gets started.  Andy laughed.  “It’s in the courts,” he said, “because nobody wants to pay.”



Glacial moraine litters the trail.

One of the oldest Bristlecone Pine trees
in the grove survives more than 3,300
years in the harsh environment.

                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                         
                                 We know it won’t affect us much, but such problems certainly will affect people in the future.

At 9:15 a.m. we set out on Glacier Trail with a side trail to the Bristlecone Pine grove.  The ancient trees, grouped in the harsh glacial screed, had been dated as much as 3,300 years old.  Five or six of the trees had signs explaining core dating and giving the estimated ages.

“How old do you think this little on might be?” I asked Andy.

“Oh, maybe a hundred years,” he guessed.

“Well, I think we’ll just have to come back in 500 years to see how much this baby has grown,” I told him.

Nestled in a cirque between 9,500 and 11,000 feet, some of the trees have been growing for millennia.  In fact, the oldest grow near the tree line where survival is most difficult.  The pamphlet said that the needles live up to 40 years.

This is called old age.

Nearing Rock Glacier at the foot of
Wheeler Peak, the moraine stones vary
in size from pebbles to boulders.

Backtracking to the junction, we continued on up the 1,200-foot rise on Glacier Trail, 2.3 miles to rock glacier.  Steep, narrow and strewn with glacial pebbles, rocks and boulders, the trail wound in switchbacks deep into a cirque of Wheeler Peak.

“I need to design a shirt that says, ‘This body climbed Wheeler Peak 30 years ago’,” I joked, when we reached the end marker of Glacier Trail.

“But you DID just climb,” he complimented.

“Not really, but that’s not belittling the current accomplishment.”

Only tiny alpine plants
survive at nearly
11,000 feet in the harsh
environment near the
top of Wheeler Peak.

We were up and down in four hours of extremely strenuous hiking—4.6 miles to the 10,800-foot elevation from the campground parking lot at 9,600 feet.

The only visitors at the top of Glacier Trail, we utilize the
time lapse camera setting to preserve the memory.

“I never would have made it yesterday,” I told Andy.  “Thank you so much for doing the second half today when I was fresh enough to enjoy the scenery.”

“If you really want to know, I’m not sure I would have made it yesterday,” Andy admitted.

The stone summit of Wheeler Peak
towers above the surroundings.

During the hike we took pictures of the alpine plants near the edge of Rock Glacier.  Most were dried up and already brown.  “I’ll bet it was in the 30’s up here last night,” guessed Andy, but the car read 75 degrees at the campground when we returned and 86 degrees by the time we were down in the valley.

Descending through the glacial moraine, Andy leads the way
along Glacier Trail to the pine and aspen forest in the distance.

A wind farm in the valley on the back side of Wheeler Peak churned in the warm, dry air, generating electricity.  About half of the 50 or more tri-blade windmills turned slowly in the breeze that came up the valley.

Winter is not far off in this country
of pine, spruce and rock.

As we crossed another range into Steptoe Valley toward Ely, Nevada, the wind kicked up dust clouds forming devil winds below us.

A little exploring in the area as far as McGill made us appreciate the green grass of home.

But the Nevada scenery is certainly beautiful.