VTHokieTom

How in the heck does that happen? Passwords changed on all accounts and on the modem. Reported to xfinity. Police say my identity may have been stolen. CRAP!

I took this photo on the first day of my trip and I saw a similar photo with the same flag in the foreground but looking north with fire on the hillsides. Terrifying.

USA…USA…USA…USA…USA! USA…USA…USA…USA…USA!

To get some nice digital photos. All my album photos are starting to fade🙁

What are your top 5 NP? Mine: Grand Canyon, Yosemite, Glacier, Tetons, Zion

Covid started the mountain obsession for me. She knows her limits and will tell me straight out, that’s it for me, you go on, I’ll wait here. 🙂

Our last day in Washington, but we had a few hours to kill before I had to turn in the rental car. We left from Rockford, WA, which is very close to Mount Baker. I picked the Baker Lake trail to see this mountain. It was a great trail through majestic, old growth trees. Then, I had to get the iconic shot in Seattle. Downtown Seattle with Mount Rainier in the background. Winter is the best time to get this shot, but, I still had to try. Here are 2 pics from each location. Until next time……….August?🤞?

Or Sourdough Ridge and Mountain. I wanted to do that as well but my foot started giving me some problems. That trail is a tough one, very steep with +5000’ in vertical gain, and it was also burned a few years ago and going down is problematic due to the loose footing.

I tried to post this yesterday, but the base camp in Rockport, WA had limited cell service. This was the last full day of hiking on this trip (Tuesday). Our 1 day in North Cascades NP was a bit of a disappointment due to my wife and her sore knees. I wanted to do Easy Pass or Cascades Pass but there were either snow or road closure issues. Some of the easier hikes were not actually on National Park land but National Recreational Area land. I found a hiking trail that gets into National Park and off we went. Our trail started off as Thunder Creek Trail. A beautiful trail with huge, Old Growth Doug Firs, Western Red Cedar, and Western Hemlock. Then it came to Fourth of July trail, which went to Fourth of July Pass. Finally, some elevation to gain🙂. My wife held back around 2000’ and I cruised up to 3500’ all the way to the pass. Normally, a pass will have vistas, but not today🤬. I did have a sort of vista on the way down, but not to my liking. The totals were 10 miles and with 2400’ of vertical gain. Tomorrow (today), we travel to Seattle to fly back home on Thursday. And there are a few pics to show coming later 🙂 Here are 4 trail/vista pics: In a few hours, I’ll be back.

I have always wanted to get a photo of a mountain in a moon lit glow and stars in the background. Last night was the time. I hiked up to a spot on the Pinnacle Peak trail and set up a place to sit and watch the magic happen starting at 9:30PM. I had to put on my wind pants and bug face mask because even at 6,000’, the bugs were looking for a meal. I thought that by 10:30, I could start to see the stars, but that was a no, except for straight over head. 11PM, was the start…….WOW! Here are 4 pics of the magic in order, by 11:30, I was getting cold plus the moon was starting to get too low. Enjoy. We travel to North Cascades NP for a quick 2 day visit to finish up this Elevation Vacation. Until next time……. LET’S GO

While I was hiking to the saddle of Pinnacle my wife took a perfectly timed shot of Mount Rainier from Reflection Lake. A few minutes later, the reflection was gone. I took a nice shot at Snow Lake and meet Hokie grad Jacob and his Mom on the trail. Let’s Go…..Hokies, rang throughout the wilderness. And finally a nice pic of Narada Falls. Until tomorrow or possibly tonight 🤞🤞🤞 Let’s GO! ** Edited by VTHokieTom at 6/22/2026, 1:15:11 AM

Today at Mount Rainier NP was 2 hikes up Pinnacle Peak saddle (~5900’), 3 if you count the possible one tonight to get some star shots🤞. The best views of Mount Rainier, IMHO. Also had lake hikes and a great little hike to a fantastic waterfall. Tomorrow is travel to North Cascades NP with possible hiking tomorrow🤞🤞🤞 First Pinnacle Peak pics from the saddle with views of Mount Rainier and Mount Adams: ** Edited by VTHokieTom at 6/21/2026, 9:45:37 PM ** Edited by VTHokieTom at 6/22/2026, 1:15:57 AM ** Edited by VTHokieTom at 6/22/2026, 1:17:12 AM

Coming down I saw Mount Adams, Hood, and St. Helen. A NP Volunteer told me Mt. Rainer had hundreds of low magnitude earthquakes recently and thinks that the big one may be coming 😳 Back to Mt. Rainer NP tomorrow🤞

Today was hiking Skyline Trail in Mount Rainer NP. Total round trip was 5.5 miles, ~1700’ vertical gain, and occasional snow fields. In 9 days of solo hiking in Colorado, I saw less than a dozen hikers on the trail. Today, I saw a dozen in the first 5 minutes of hiking. The trail was loaded with people, a bunch of Hokie groups, UNC guy, 2 Duke guys, I congratulated a Boise State guy, 2 WVU gals, Clemson guy, Louisville guy, Indiana guy who I congratulated, USA soccer fans, 2 wahoos, Australia Soccer fans who had a great sense of humor and I loved their accent. It was pretty cool to interact with. The morning started out great, clear, cool, no winds. Then the fog/clouds rolled in and Mount Rainer was gone. We had a few moments with nearly white out conditions, but the clouds/ fog would come and go. A great day, at an amazing NP! More Mt. Rainer NP tomorrow. Now for the pics:

Almost as good as on a mountain top😎 Top level: glass walls and no ceiling Middle level: bathrooms Bottom level: glass floors and the floor rotates 1 rev in 20 minutes or so. There is a bar on this floor and you can watch Seattle go by while drinking a $17 beer 😳

I am more tired today, than any day hiking up high. Yesterday was move to another time zone and laundry day. I had a few extra hours so I drove a long road to the Blue Lakes Trailhead to see Mount Sneffels from the back side. I flew from Grand Junction to Denver to Seattle, my wife from Richmond to Denver to Seattle. Lights out at 1:30AM PDT. Today was a quick visit to the Space Needle then drive to Ashford, WA, just outside of Mount Rainer NP. Time for dinner🙂 Mount Rainer exploration tomorrow!

The first time I went up this route, I took the first 2 pics in the morning. Today I took the same pics, with a little variation, but this time in the afternoon. What say you Lounge Lizzards!

Last day in Telluride. My goal was to summit Telluride Peak (13,507’). I started at 10,200’ via the Black Bear Pass Road, the last place to easily park before one way only coming from the east. Even though I had a beast day yesterday, I felt great gaining elevation to the saddle by Ajax Peak. I was not sure if there was a trail east of the saddle, but there was, I made it to the unnamed 13,200’ high point and now had to down climb about 200’, then up climb 500’ for the summit. As I down climbed 100’ or so, I came to a knife edge with 300-400’ very steep drop offs to the north and 300-400’ steep drop offs to the south. I began to take a few step ups to the edge and boy was the wind whipping. At that moment, no, heck no with this. There is no way I am getting blown off this route. Although I did not reach the goal for today, I am very happy with what I did the last 10 days. Tomorrow with be travel day for a week of hiking at Mount Rainer NP and North Cascades NP with my wife. The first time that I have not gone at least 11,200’. Not bad for an old guy🙂 Here are a few pics:

The descent of La Junta, should be called La Junka, was steep, loose scree. Thankfully, I had my spikes on. After I got down from that, the trail was an old mining road, which was actually fine and the views were fantastic. Up next were trails and narrow ledges with cliff edges. Exposure does not bother me, well unless I fall😳. Up next was a land slide area that has not been fixed. To cross this steep, deep ravine, I had to go up 60’ or so, carefully ease into the ravine and slide down to where the trail intersects by stopping on large boulders. The last large boulder was a fail safe. If I miss, it’s a sure slide off a cliff and the end of VTHokieTom. That was not enjoyable. Then it was overgrown, loose trails with trees blocking the way. Thankfully, I got down after 4 hours of close calls. The total for the day was 12 miles, 4700’ vertical gain in 10 hours. Here are 4 more pics: Until next time.

La Junta at 13,445’ was next. The hike from Ballard was glorious. High alpine grasses with flowers starting to pop. Here are 4 pics: 🤞🤞🤞🤞

I decided to be like Ernie Banks on this day, I did 2 mountains! A glorious day in the Telluride area. My first stop, Ballard Mountain @ 12,812’ on a fantastic trail. A few days ago I tried this mountain and only made it to 11,200’ due to weather. Here are higher pics of the mountain:

When I first started this obsession, I only did easier class 1 and class 2 hikes. When they become class 3, it’s more climbing than hiking, and snow increases the difficulty and danger. Although I like doing mountains when they have snow because it looks so much better in photos, I have to be able to summit these harder mountains. So, late June or July is going to be my new routine.

14k mountains, just like Arnold….I’ll be back🙂

My unrealistic goal today was to summit Mount Wilson at 14,256’. Unrealistic because there is a ton of snow when the route gets steep and with extreme exposure at the end. I set the alarm for 4:30AM, got up at 4:10. The weather was forecasted to be nice late, but rain early. I made it to the trailhead by 6, a 50 minute drive🤬. The first 3-4 miles are fantastic, a National Park like trail, beautiful woodland scenery and treeless openings with thick, knee high vegetation. However, the area had storms yesterday and the vegetation soaked my boots. Around 7:45, it started to rain, but up high was snow. I dislike hiking in the rain so I found some cover under spruce trees and waited for 40 minutes. It started to clear, I put on my rain coat, and proceeded to go to 11,200’. By know, my feet were wet and cold, I looked around and saw more potential rain and I was done. By the time I got back to the trailhead it was beautiful, of course. I decided then, that the next 3 days, 14k summits were not going to happen and I was going to concentrate on mountains around Telluride without snow. Here are early photos and then I will post photos at the end.

** Edited by VTHokieTom at 6/15/2026, 4:30:16 PM

About 30 minutes after I started going down, I heard my first low rumble. I had a few louder ones next but it was south of my location. Thankfully no issues. I did have a laugh to myself though. Just as I was finishing the trail, a group of know it all young adults was starting. I pointed to the dark clouds and said a storm is coming. What they said, it’s alright, they are going away from us. 20 minutes later, it is raining hard 🙂🤣🤣 3 pics: ** Edited by VTHokieTom at 6/14/2026, 10:04:59 PM

The plan today was to summit Ballard Mountain 12,818’ but storms were in the forecast. I started ~8AM and got up to 11,200’ when the clouds started to build. 3 pics up:

Here is shot looking down at the town and another Hokie sighting in the Wilderness, Brian and Shannon operating the phone and they live in the Richmond area. Tomorrow is iffy weather wise. Hopefully, I’ll get some elevation! 🙂 ** Edited by VTHokieTom at 6/13/2026, 10:54:20 PM

Today was Ajax Peak or more correctly area above Ajax Peak @ 12,800’, 6 miles, and 2500’ vertical gain. The day started great, then the clouds moved in. 4 pics have not worked, here are 2 waterfall pics:

I won’t lie and say I was not affected by the tragic accident from yesterday. I saw the helicopter bring in the young man named Bret to the location where he was transferred to the ground transportation. There were around 15 folks below the transfer location and we had a short prayer vigil and honored Bret when the rescue trucks passed by. Before sack time, I had to start to pack and organize my gear and clothes, because day 5 was moving day to Telluride. I could not find my regular glasses and case. I must have left them when I sent an SOS text to my wife via my Garmin Inreach Messenger. I had to remove the case to get to Garmin and I forgot to repack the case. I had the normal night call with my wife and she asked if I was going to go back to get them. I told her I was not. During the night, something happened to me. I don’t know if it was a dream or a feeling, but I had to go find the glasses. I found out why when I parked in the exact place from the previous day. There were 2 trucks and one of them was Bret’s. I spoke to the other driver and he saw Bret leave to summit the mountain in just running gear Wednesday evening. It now clicks what happened that night. He did not have spikes to give him traction on the steep, ice/snow covered gulley and he slipped to his death😢. I tried to find my glasses and case, but had no luck. I did later have the why did I come up here moment. On my way done, I met an 18 year old trail runner with no gear as well. I told him the story and pleaded with him to not go. He would not listen. His Dad was a little behind him I told him of the accident and he has to stop his son. He was thankful and I believe he got his son to stop 🤞 Here are 4 pics of yesterday, a beautiful, but reflective day.

Hokies………I was on Mount Sneffels this morning, half way up the 1st steep gully with 3 hikers above me. I saw a woman hiking down and I asked her how was the summit. She said she found a dead body. She was the one that initiated the SOS. 2 rescue hikers helped the flight crew recover the body to the collection point where 2 rescue trucks were waiting. A lot of folks need our prayers tonight. ** Edited by VTHokieTom at 6/11/2026, 4:32:50 PM

I stayed on the summit and ate my lunch. The wind was calm and the views were outstanding.

What a beautiful day today! My goal was to summit Trico Peak by hiking up a 4-wheel drive road up to Black Bear Pass, turn right and scramble up to 13,301’. Success! Here is the data today: 7 miles total, 2100’ vertical gain, 3.5 hours up, and 1.5 hours down. Wind was better today, but I still had to cover all the skin. Tomorrow the plan is to summit Mt. Sneffels at 14,155 glorious feet of altitude. LET’S GO! 4 pics from the adventure:

Great response! Thanks for the laugh🙂

Day 1 went to 11,800’ Today went to 12,800’ Tomorrow hopefully 13,200’ Thursday hopefully 14,155’ Plus loaded up on cardio and road miles to prepare. I did have a slight headache the first day, but no normal brain fog this time

My goal today was to summit South Hayden Mountain at 13,215 via the Richmond Trail to Richmond Pass. Very nice trail with nice views, but very steep. The pass was loaded with snow, so I was not able to summit SHM. 5 miles round trip, with 2500’ of vertical gain, took me 5 hours. Very windy up high, so perhaps it was a blessing I did not go further up. 4 pics of of the day, hopefully:

Drove it a little today, no issues except for pull offs are few and far in between. I will park in a large area and hike it to the pass and then hike a mountain up there if it’s doable🤞🤞🤞

Lake City was amazing

The plan is Thursday if the weather is good. 🤞🤞

Hope it works

I now have 3 bars 🤞🤞🤞