My goal today was to go up to the vista point on Quartz Mountain that Derek and I visited last summer en route to an epic climb to almost the summit. I wanted to see how long the hike is, out and back, but my new Garmin is a bit muddled.
In the field it was stuck on .92 miles for a long way. And when I got home and downloaded the track there were two tracks, the longest 2.31 miles. It appeared to be complete but I am certain it is much longer than that. It was about .4 mile on the CCC Trail to the start of the Quartz Trail (more like a bootpath, actually) and I counted almost 2,000 right-foot steps up to the vista.
On level ground one mile is about 1,200 right-foot steps, but on such a super-steep trail (it reminds me a lot of Zig Zag) it is hard to say. At the very least, a count of 2,000 has to be at least 1.5 miles, and so, round-trip, that would be roughly 3.5 miles. I will do this again and try a Gaia track.
In either case, it was a great hike. For one, I finally did a really steep one. Elevation at the start of Quartz Trail was about 1,100 feet, and the vista was 2,585, so almost 1,500 feet in roughly 1.5 miles. Not bad.
But the other reason it was a good day was that I finally got back to my favored three-a-week pattern. I hope to keep it up.
I know from last summer with Derek on this trail that this is a super view point when it is sunny. You are staring right at Rooster Mountain and the valley between Quartz and Rooster. It is beautiful.
Just past the Nordrum Lookout the trail dips down sharply to a little stream:
And then climbs the ravine on the other side, and from that point upward it is a real workout. So it is all good.
Not sure when I will be back here for a better measurement, but I will pick a day where all the effort will be rewarded with a view.
Track below.
