EricK is the son of AlanK, not an actual ID on this board. I was tempted to use the title “Father disowns son for ditching him on Iron Mountain”, but that would not be very accurate. Eric and I have hiked Iron Mountain together 8 times since he was 11 and both of us have been increasingly curious about what he could do if he took off up the mountain on his own, especially now that he is a college cross country champion.
Today was a perfect day for it because JayO was also on the hike, so Eric felt no guilt about leaving his poor old man slogging it out alone. It was also perfect because it was cloudy (at least below 4000 feet or so) and cool. I had told Jay we should pick a cool day in June and we managed to do that – temperatures were between 54 and 76 for the entire outing.
So, the three of us started off together at 6:15. Jay and I walked the whole thing and made the summit in 3:24, which I think is pretty respectable for two guys in their late 50s. Eric started running from the parking lot and we next saw him on the summit. Even though he was wearing boots and carrying 3 liters of water, he was not dawdling. I recall commenting to Jay when we hit 6000 feet that I hoped Eric was on top. He was, having hit the summit at 8:30 – 2:15:30 after starting out. So, Eric has done Iron Mountain 9 times now and still has a weakness for the place.
I know that some people prefer a “stop and smell the flowers” approach. There is room for discussion on that topic. However (a) we have smelled every flower on the Iron Mountain route many times and (b) no one can possibly fault another hiker for getting the job done quickly on that particular hike – “it feels good when I stop,”
I would not be surprised to learn of a Rick Kent Iron Mountain outing in the next couple of weeks.
Pictures
And excellent photos - looks like it was a superb day for it.
