Agnostic.com

10 28

Today's hike to a towering granite Spire

Today Karen and I hiked miles with over 2,450 feet of elevation gain and loss. We hiked up steep Spomberg Canyon and along a curving ridge. Huge dropoffs on both sides of the trail. At 4.5 miles, we descended for a mile to reach a giant spire. Karen wanted to show it to me.

Ascending steeply, I ate salted cashews and a Luna bar to boost me up the trail. It's hard to hike, eat and talk. We delay lunch until finding a view spot. Today we pushed to reach the spire.

"Holy cow!" I exclaimed when I saw the towering spire. "This is spectacular!" I have never seen a spire like this while hiking.

The Wenatchee Mountains are composed of bands of white silica and dark granite, I learned by hiking with a geologist. "Silica came from eruptions of Glacier Peak (,000 feet)," he said. "Silica is like glass. Granite has minerals that feed plants. More plants grow in granite soil than in silica soil."

Rock climbers love climbing granite because it does not crumble, I learned from dating a famous rock climber. Karen and I spotted climbing pitons and ropes left by climbers on the granite spire. "This is extremely dangerous to climb," Karen said.

Bitterbrush bushes ate one of the snow baskets on my hiking poles. So, I had one spear and one hiking pole with a snow basket. I felt frustrated for two minutes, then let it go.

Today we took micro-spikes on and off, on and off. The steep trail was a mix of slippery snow, ice and mud. Hard to descend. We looked like Pigpen when we got back to our cars.

What a thrill to see that amazing spire!

Photos:

  1. Karen sat by the spire to show it's size. Dangerous to walk to it. Too scary for me.

  2. Wenatchee Mountains foothills.

  3. In the Spring, this plant has white flowers like Baby's Breath. See the dropoff?

  4. One of four small spires we spotted while descending.

LiterateHiker 9 Oct 29
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10 comments

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1

I definitely wouldn’t want to try the spire itself. It is a marvelous thing to see though. Thank you for sharing

1

granite is a slowly cooled igneous rock, possible left over from volcanic vents?

@Larimar

Good deduction, Sherlock.

Ring of Fire

The Wenatchee Mountains are part of the Cascade Range, locally known as "the Cascades."

"The Cascades are part of the Pacific Ocean's Ring of Fire, the ring of volcanoes and associated mountains around the Pacific Ocean. All of the eruptions in the contiguous United States over the last 200 years have been from Cascade volcanoes. "

[en.wikipedia.org]

@LiterateHiker geology 101, basic info 😀

@LiterateHiker [en.wikipedia.org] Monument Valley's El Capitan....it's a volcanic plug.

1

That spire is amazing ,the way it is formed ,Such beautiful scenery as always ,You and Karen do live a bit on the edge when your out hiking but you know your abilitys and do not go beyond that ,waiting for your next adventure

2

Wonderful story, and beautiful vistas on this epic hike! Thank you so much for sharing the adventure!

@tinkercreek

Thank you, dear!

1

WOW, just wow! I like to climb though am not a real climber. I climbed a 1,000 ft cliff on the Kern River, Kern County, Ca,. My friend who was with me almost fell (I saved him, yay!). But we were stupid and didn't have any equipment. That spire is too scary-looking to me even if I knew what I was doing. I wouldn't do it.

1

Amazing. I was wondering about where you had done any hiking lately.

@Jolanta

This is my second hike this week. Last Monday:

Today's Hike: Golden Week and clueless Mormons.

1

You always have such beautiful pictures.

@xenoview

Thank you.

1

beautiful day you had, that spire is amazing

1

Thank you.

1

Awesome

bobwjr Level 10 Oct 29, 2020
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