Saturday, May 23, 2009

Mt. Baden-Powell summit and Nude hiking in the snow!











A month into our Pacifc Crest Trail adventure and I have hardly hiked in the nude at all. I have found that nudity is much more enjoyable if not laboring under a heavy sweaty pack. This doesn't even really feel nude anyway, 20-30 pounds hanging over me? I guess technically I would be nude though, and maybe I will start hiking more in the nude while wearing the pack, once I change out some of the gear and make it a little lighter. For now, I think I am definitely going to do all the summits nude! I love the experience of dropping the pack by the trail, and running up to the peak naked! Baden-Powell had incredible views that a camera will never do justice. The air was just too smoggy/hazy. The eyes cut through a lot more haze than the camera does and we could see far in all directions. The mountain dropped off dramatically down to canyons far below. We could see the High Desert off in the distance.

The 9,407 ft summit was incredible. There were only little pockets of snow left on the trail to play in on the way up. The air was clear and much cooler than down below! There were amazing old pine trees, all gnarled and twisted like life sized bonsais. The trail was really well maintained in this section, so no need to get a scraped up from plants growing into the trail. There wasn't much that would grow up here anyway, but these old pine trees. The best part was no one was around but Jen and I, so I quickly ditched my clothes and hiked up to the summit! I made a little flag out of a trekking pole and my kilt to wave above the peak. Jen and I took photos of us on top. I signed the trail registry as Jen hunted around for some more photo ops. When we decided to head back down to our packs there was still no on coming up the trail, so I continued back down in the nude! It was a very happy exciting reward after the long challenging climb.

After the summit we hiked on a few more miles to Little Jimmy spring. Probably the most visually appealing water so far! We drank heartily without filtering it; it tasted superb.

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