Climbing Horton Hears a Whoo!

What a gorgeous day Sunday was in southern New Mexico. Hopefully the cold is gone for another year.  One can only hope.  While I was in CO/WY Gail and Roger did some exploring on their own and astounded us with the fact they had climbed Horton Hears a Whoo Mountain.  (The correct name for it is Turtleback Mountain, but you know me.  I only see Horton when I look up there. Yes, I've spent too much time watching kid movies.   Here is what I see and it is in blue.  :)

So anyway Linda came and asked me if I wanted to climb.  mmmmm maybe if I can find some shoes.  I have this pair of shoes that should be thrown away........you know the routine.  Ken remarked (that in itself it unusual) about me breaking an ankle.  So I rushed to WallyWorld and bought a pair of hikers, grabbed my walking stick Clay made me; gave Maynard one Emile had given me and off we went about 10:30 a.m.  Roger and Gail were the leaders with Deb/Dave; Fred/Chris; Newell/Linda; Maynard and me pulling up the rear.  What a climb and what a trail.  I believe there was more debris on this trail than any I've ever seen.  Thousand of rocks the size of your fist were part of the trail.  We climbed slowly but steadily.  Roger pulled up the rear keeping an eye on Maynard.  Fred, Chris and Mayno were the oldest ones in the group with Debbie pulling up the young end.  :)  So glad I bought the boots and took the stick.  Without them I would have just had them roll me off the mountain and leave me.  :)
Chris, Fred and Newell reached their threshold first.  I hadn't hit mine yet so kept going.  I finally came to a spot that had LOTS of huge rocks which I would have to climb over and it reached my brain that HOW was a going to get back down off them???? Hmmmm?  OK That was my threshold.  Deb went about another 100 yards and reached hers.  This left Roger, Gail, Maynard, Dave and Linda trekking onward.  After 30 minutes or so Deb and I went down where Fred, Chris and Newell were resting and overlooking the valley.

Dave and Maynard made it to the top; wrote their names and came back down.

And then we saw the others WAAYYY on ahead.  They were little bitty ants walking up the skyline.  I had the big camera with me but I couldn't hold it steady enough to get any better pictures.  The bottom line is Newell, Deb and I got down the mtn with me falling only once......my feet slid out from under me.  We got to the bottom at about 3:00 and went home.  Gail stayed at the first "hump"; Linda and Roger stopped at the second but Maynard and Dave made it all the way to the peak of Horton.  Of course the coming down wasn't a peice of cake for any of us. They made it home just before sunset.  It was a great day!