Organ Needle

I woke up on Sunday 6 April expecting to be unable to walk because the day before I had climbed the Organ Needle - almost 9000 feet and the highest peak in the Organ Mountains. Here is a photo of me and my hiking buddies - from left to right - Kevin Melissa Greg Ed - at the end of our 10.5 hour day. We look pretty darn good!



We started at 8:30 a.m. at around 4500 feet and by around 2 p.m. had ascended to the peak - about 4 miles and 4500 feet above. We played around at the top a bit for too short a time before heading back down for the descent that - at least to me - was every bit as tough as the ascent - and arrived back at the parking lot around 7 p.m.

Here is the Google Earth image of our hike. We started climbing via a more southern route but then did a bit of off-trail bushwhacking northward when we decided that we were off trail. Luckily we found the trail again and so were able to head pretty straight east and dramatically up hill to our destination. I have more stories to tell but the passage of a week and a half has made them feel more appropriate for the heart than the blog. And it is late. And I expect to do this again.