Calico Tank Peak 04.20.2011

Calico Tank Peak. It is located before going into the visitor center entrance of Red Rock Canyon. This is the very first hiking with Meetup that includes some SCRAMBLING AND EXPOSURE that we had never experienced before! On this day, my husband and I also joined the hiking club called "52 Peak Club". It is a club to achieve all 52 peaks in Las Vegas, mainly located around at Red Rock, Lake Mead and Mt. Charleston. There are some very competitive hikers among the group. And I am so excited to get to hike with them. Anyways, this hike was about 4 hours round trip, requires class 3 scrambling.

Starting at the foot of the peak, already the ground is not flat

Gets steeper, good shoes are really important

Within 1/2 hour, we were already on the bare wall of the mountain. The incline is steep that good hiking shoes with solid grip really come in handy. On this particular wall of mountain, we still did not need to use hands much. Our body keeps the balance against the steep footing.

Already good view from mid point to the peak

 Every once in a while, after steep scrambling, we got to the flatter ground and took break. Then off to more scrambling on vertical wall and edge of the mountain....

Just have to hold on to tiny edges where shoe can fit in...

Trying to find every little crevasses...

Nice pic! We look like rock climber without rope! Wow!

 I had this cheap winter gloves I got from Target. It doesn't work for this kind of hiking! My hands were slipping and couldn't get good grip. So I took them off. The bare hands seemed to work better. But I need to invest on hiking gloves. Even some type of gardening gloves can give you good grips, so I was told. So I'm gonna have to check it out in the store one of these days. My husband seemed to be nervous for me. He always thinks I am clumsy. He knows that I can't be clumsy on the edge of the mountain. No mistake allowed. Because of that reason, he looks nervous when we do this kind of hike (the kind with potential danger). I don't blame him. He loves me!

Anyhow, we are almost to the top. Do you see the red rock changes to the white rock at the top? That's the peak!

almost there.....

 Wah Laahh~!! The PEAK! The feeling of accomplishment is greater this time because of the facts that this was a challenging hike for both of us and that we kept up with some experienced hikers! The advantage I have is that I don't weigh much so it was easier to use my upper body strength to life myself up. My disadvantage is that I have shorter legs which can make thing tougher on some parts of the trail, jumping on big gaps and/or taking big steps on the vertical wall.

All in all, with the help of others, We did it!!

from the left, my hub, me, Marisa,Ted, Gary, Skip, Jack, Patrick and Mj!

 This hike gave us more confidence in our skills on hiking experiences!!