C Hill

After weeks of working out on Dollar and the equipment at the gym, I decided that it was time for a real workout: climbing C Hill. According to the USGS, the top of C Hill registers at 5,756 feet and Cartoon City is officially at 4,730 feet, so it's a decent ascent for someone who hasn't climbed it since the 1980s. Armed with camera, energy bars, and very little brains, I headed out the door.

And that little digital camera takes some nice pictures. This is the first of the fifty-five pictures I took and it's my favorite. When you click on the image, you'll see there are two smaller hills in front. I started up the right hill (north) and went down the other one (south). For the record, there is a road to the far south that doesn't appear on this picture, but that option is for wimps and four-wheelers.



As indicated, I climbed this hill twenty, twenty-five years ago and fairly frequently, too, but only because there was nothing else to do in this silly town. It used to be covered with the usual Nevada flora, that being tumbleweed, tumbleweed, and even more tumbleweed. Last year's Waterfall Fire cleared that all out and it hasn't returned, yet. In its place is cheatgrass, planted by the government to keep the side of C Hill on the side of C Hill. The black bushes that remained are the hardiest reminders of the fire.



I wasn't a speed demon going up by any stretch of the imagination. I took small, measured steps the entire time, using hiking poles to steady myself, and kept my feet as straight as possible and pointed towards the top. The 17-year-old Bob of long ago didn't have to worry about his knees, but the 44-year-old Bob needs to get out of bed tomorrow.

And before I knew it, I was at the flag. This is the second American flag up there. The first literally blew away. As you can see from the picture, the second one is all metal and riveted to a stainless steel frame that's anchored onto cast iron pipes kept in place by a concrete foundation. It ain't going nowhere.



I called Liz from the flag and she came outside for a picture. That brown spot by the arrow is her. She is waving.



Fifteen minutes later, I was on top of C Hill. The summit of C Hill is actually two ridges and that's the eastern ridge.



The view from the top is amazing. Here's downtown Carson City, and the trees in the middle are at Mills Park.



Looking west, this is about where the Waterfall Fire started. The brown house in the middle is under construction on the site where the first house was lost.



And on the way back, I took a couple of picture of the college with its spanking new baseball field.



The empty brown field next to the road on the far left of the picture is how close the fire got to the college.



The descent was much harder than going up because the different route I chose was a pain. The ground was soft and more prone to slippage, and there was far less cheatgrass and more weeds to scratch a person dumb enough to not to wear proper footgear. Next time, I'm taking more fluids, another pair of socks, and decent hiking boots, especially to support the ankles.

All in all, it was fairly anti-climatic event. The bike ride to Dayton was much harder.

And as I said, I took many more pictures, but this is the most boring blog entry in the world and you've suffered enough. :-)