{"id":2330,"date":"2019-04-15T05:19:46","date_gmt":"2019-04-15T12:19:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=2330"},"modified":"2019-04-15T18:26:12","modified_gmt":"2019-04-16T01:26:12","slug":"old-mikes-peak","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/?p=2330","title":{"rendered":"Old Mike’s Peak"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Old Mike\u2019s Peak. It\u2019s why I stopped blogging over two years ago. Let me explain.<\/p>\n

In 2006, the 57-year-old version of me had taken a circuitous route up the east side of New Mexico\u2019s Wheeler Peak where I met a couple who were camped at Horseshoe Lake, just 800 feet below the summit.<\/p>\n

The problem was neither of us had climbed Wheeler before and the trail forked ahead. One path ascended a peak to the southwest; the other, a nearer rise directly above us.<\/p>\n

After looking at a Forest Service map together, they wanted to know what I thought. \u201cDon\u2019t ask me,\u201d I said. \u201cBesides, I have to start back.\u201d I had already hiked nine miles and had to return to my pickup truck that day.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what is your guess?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, I\u2019d choose that one.\u201d I pointed southwest to a distinct hump at the end of a long, narrow trail along a steep ridge with severe exposure (read \u201csheer drops of 600 feet or more\u201d).<\/p>\n

They thanked me and headed toward what I now know as Old Mike\u2019s Peak (aptly named, don\u2019t you think\u2014but definitely not Wheeler). On a windy day, Old Mike\u2019s would be dangerous. I\u2019m glad it wasn\u2019t windy that day.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve topped Wheeler over 20 times since then, and I still look for my couple. I want to apologize.<\/p>\n

Which is why I stopped blogging. Just six months into retirement, I realized I still didn\u2019t have a clue, and didn\u2019t want to point you to Old Mike\u2019s.<\/p>\n

Now, I\u2019m putting the finishing touches on the book I\u2019ve written on the subject. Still don\u2019t consider myself an expert, but I\u2019ve read most of the experts, and I can point you to what they say.<\/p>\n

And I can let you look over the shoulder of a fellow traveler on this journey, one who hasn\u2019t reached the peak yet, who has been lost on the mountain as much as not, yet one who is enjoying the climb, and the company, including you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Old Mike\u2019s Peak. It\u2019s why I stopped blogging over two years ago. Let me explain. In 2006, the 57-year-old version of me had taken a circuitous route up the east side of New Mexico\u2019s Wheeler Peak where I met a couple who were camped at Horseshoe Lake, just 800 feet below the summit. The problem […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2330","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2330"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2342,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2330\/revisions\/2342"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2330"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2330"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mikebellah.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2330"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}