Taking care of more unfinished business.
Day 5 February 19, 2025, Picketpost Mt scramble, 6.94 km, 587 m elevation, 3 hrs 20 min.
Micah and I had intended to hike up Picketpost Mt and camp near the summit on our first hike in the area on a trip with another failed attempt hiking to the confluence when we first explored the Arizona Trail. The trip was back 2019 and we did hike up the initial slope of Picketpost Mt to the cliff face but decided that at the end of a long day we were not in the mood to do some scrambling with our all our camping gear. So even though we were in sight of the car we just descended part way down and camped overnight on a ridge with an amazing view of the valley. Going to the summit of Picketpost Mt was fitting for this trip as it fit in with the theme of completing unfinished adventures.
We started our day with breakfast at a Jalapeños a little Mexican restaurant just a few minutes walk from the motel. We both had breakfast wraps and a coffee. We then decided to order enchiladas to eat later for lunch. This would help us time stopping for lunch on our way to the airport since we would just eat the enchiladas in the car. If I was to do it again I would have the enchiladas at the restaurant for breakfast and eat the wraps in the car. I feel it would be easier to eat the enchiladas with real cutlery while sitting still at a table then with plastic cutlery in a moving car. We managed but it was messy.
We hit the trail near 10 am. It was already very hot out while we were at the motel and since Micah did not have any lightweight shirts with them they borrowed my spare sun shirt. The catch with them wearing my spare sun shirt is that both my sun shirts are the exact same except for sizing. When purchasing my initial sun shirt, with the additional hood, they had no men’s sizes, so I purchase a women’s shirt and guessed on the sizing. The shirt fit OK enough for me to wear but the sleeves where a little short. I liked the shirt so much I purchased another women’s sun shirt but a size larger and it fit great. My plan was to use the smaller shirt for day hikes keeping the larger better fitting shirt for backpacking trips. With both of us wearing the same shirt it undoubtedly looked a little cringy out on the trial but I doubt anyone judged us too harshly for it.
Just to put the height of Mt Lemmon, 2700 m, into some perspective. At home I live in the Rocky Mountains of Canada just outside Banff NP and the elevation is only 1400 m but most people would consider that I live at elevation. At the top of Picketpost Mt we are at 1300 m with the base at 700 m. With 1 mile = 1600 m Mt Lemmon is almost a mile higher than what we are in the photo and is easily 1 mile above the land that surrounds it. Mt Lemmon is also 100 km (60 miles) away from our present location. A simplified formula for determining the distance to a flat horizon, like on the ocean or desert, given that h = your height above the surrounding landscape and d is in kilometres, is d = 3.6 x square root (h). A simple calculation you can do on any phone calculator.
So for us on top of Picketpost Mt which is approximately 600 m above the surrounding landscape, the distance to a flat horizon would be, d = 3.6 x square root (600) = 88 km. Mt Lemmon is 100 km away but we can see it because the top is 1400 m above us. We are not able to see the base of Mt Lemmon as it would be beyond our horizon. One way to prove to a person the Earth is round is if you watch a ship sail over the horizon the bottom of the ship disappears from view first. If the Earth was flat than the ship would just continue to get smaller and smaller as it sailed away from you but you would be able to see the entire ship.
As we were descending we past some people who were looking for a phone that someone further down the mountain had lost. Micah was the hero of the day finding the phone. Since we did not have a cell phone that was connected to the network we gave the phone to some people who had been given a phone number to call if they found the phone. We did pass the people who had lost the phone near the base of Picketpost Mt, they were quite thrilled that the phone had been found.
We finished the hike just after 1 pm. The entire adventure took us a little over 3 hours. Since we were headed straight to the airport I changed into my travel clothes at the car. This was a little uncomfortable since the temperatures were in the 80’s F and I was putting on long pants in preparation for the freezing temperatures awaiting us back home.
Micah ate their lunch first as we traveled back to Phoenix then we switched so I could eat. Micah ended up driving all the way to the airport. The goal had been to arrive at about 2:30 pm and we arrived into the parkade at 2:23 pm.
One last story before we flew home. Sitting by the gate I decided to get off the hard plastic seats and lie on the floor with my feet on the seat. This was one of my favourite positions in relaxing my back. So I was resting nicely on the floor when a young women kindly asked me if I was OK. I replied that I had pinched a nerve in my back the month before and this was a comfortable position. She remarked that she totally understood making me think she had some medical knowledge. The rest of the trip went smoothly taking us back home to the land of snow and ice after a fun adventure in the desert.