The Shull Ascent

Been up Mission Peak dozens of times over the years,  but there is nothing like the first time. The first time we hiked Mission Peak, Barb and I went home and slept for hours and were sore for a week!  Went with first timers Al and Deb on Saturday morning.  Al, who came up short in his last quest for the peak back in 2003, vowed to conquer the 2500 ft behemoth on this cool summer morning. 

Turned out to be a great hike!   We took 5 hours to do the round trip and spent the time enjoying each others company and the wonderful day.  Fortunately for Al and Deb, I was able to fill the time with a  history of all our hikes with all our friends. Pointing out different points of interest along the way. To encourage Al, I pointed out each spot where other (himself included) people had been “forced to turn back” during previous hikes with us.  Passing each of these monuments seemed to give Al the intestinal fortitude he needed to push on. The only place I didn’t get a picture of was “Diane’s spot.”  Nobody wanted to stop since they were on a roll and had the peak in site.

Eventually we came out of the clouds and into the sun, and completed our trek to the peak under a glorious summer sky.  Please check out the photos of the hike.