Walks with Moss: Mount Rose on a Sunny Day

I left the house at about 9:00 and arrived at the trail head and was on the trail at 10:10. I expected to take about 4 hours going up, about an hour for lunch and about 2 hours going down. But then something happened that changed my plans. I found mushrooms! Big beautiful voluptuous sweet smelling mushrooms. Nothing to eat, but plenty to take pictures of.

Big Beautiful Boletes by the light of day (Leccinum ponderosum or a close relative)

So I had to make a decision, shoot mushrooms or hike. It’s November and there was no option to hike and shoot mushrooms and be done before dark. But, I opted for both anyway and finished my hike well after dark. A quick check to see if my headlamp was working, it was,so the plan was set. Spend all day and part of the night on this mountain.

At the fork I went to the left, that’s the steep route that goes right to the summit. While on the summit I saw the birds and the birds saw my lunch, but they also saw my bird dog. So I tied up my bird dog about 20 feet from the summit so I could share my lunch with the birds. My poor bird dog went crazy she wanted to eat both the birds and my lunch. Oh well, I’ve got the mountain to myself on a Wednesday… or so I thought.

I was happily taking pictures of birds while my dog went crazy and then I heard the CLANK CLANK CLANK of trekking poles.. Oh, so I did not have the mountain all to myself. Anyway I apologized to the approaching hiker, for all the noise my dog was making and then I left the summit to him.

Lunch is over

I kept going in the same direction and finished up my lunch at the little meadow near the top and then I headed back down the trail to complete the loop. I always do the entire loop, unless there is snow. When there is snow I turn right at the fork and take the long way both up and down; that’s the safe snow route.

Dry Creek could be clearly heard from the summit

I hiked out in the dark and had fun re-finding all the mushrooms I had way pointed with my GPS(r) while it was still light. Finding them in the dark was a bit harder.

The hardest part was finding the big bag of mushrooms that I had stashed at about 3,000 feet. I did not want to carry it up and down that hill, but hard tough experience has taught me to pick them on the way up, or I will find that someone else has picked them before I make it down. Sooooo I picked the mushrooms and then stashed them for pick up on the trip back down.

I’m not exactly sure how far I hiked in the pitch dark because I messed up my track log, but I think it was ½ mile and boy oh boy was it dark. But I have a supersonic headlamp and a Springer spaniel raging dog so I knew I was safe. Ok, ok, it was a little creepy but my portable tunes blasted into my headphones helped with the ambiance. I only looked back to see if a mountain lion was stalking me, once or twice.

Same boletes as above but in the dusk (with a big ass flash and a slow shutter speed) on the way down

Mount Rose is my personal fitness gauge. I can tell what kind of shape I’m in by how sore I am the next day. Well now it’s the next day and I’m mildly to moderately sore, so I think I’m in good shape in spite of having to take the entire summer off from hiking. I’ll hike again this week, if I can find the time or the energy. I really need to lose some weight.

I hope I can keep doing Rose well into my 80's just like my heroes on the Mount Rose trail. This was my first time summiting Mount Rose with my new camera. The last time I went up there was too much snow and rain for a camera that is worth more than my Jeep.

3,500 feet elevation gain and loss in 6.9 miles RT

Some other times that I have blogged Rose

Saturday, February 13, 2010 (snow)
Friday, February 05, 2010 (snow)
Sunday, September 06, 2009 (thunder)
Thursday, July 31, 2008
Sunday, October 14, 2007
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Wednesday, June 13, 2007
Saturday, June 09, 2007