Charleston: 1, Me: 0

"You can't always get what you want."

That was pretty much the theme of my day at Mount Charleston.

As I pointed out in the prelude, I prepared myself for a variety of possible foreseeable problems. Unfortunately, I prepared myself for the wrong problems. I was unprepared, for instance, for the trailhead to be closed. I was likewise unprepared for snow. I also can't exactly say that I was ready for massive collapsed trees blocking the trail. Lucky for me, I got them all, which made my run excursion debacle interesting, to say the least.

In one of the trail descriptions, I read: "The trail is well-maintained and virtually impossible to lose." Maybe I should have read the whole thing: "The trail is well-maintained and virtually impossible to lose except in snow." (emphasis mine). And boy was there snow...

But I'm getting a little ahead of myself here, since that description was for the "South Loop" trail. The South Loop trail happened to be closed. Instead, I was guided to the "Echo Loop" trial, which was in such dire condition (snow, felled trees, etc) that I have to imagine that the Devil himself was standing at the South Loop trailhead smiting people with a vengeance. And, for that reason, I guess I can't be mad that the South Loop trail was closed.

The short version of what could be a very long story is that it was impossible to keep track of the trail thanks to the ski-resort-like conditions. Interestingly, as advertised, Echo Loop does come back around to meet South Loop -- at the closed South Loop trailhead. So after 2.5 hours of jogging up and down avalanche chutes, getting stuck in three-foot-deep snowdrifts, and tripping over innumerable half-snow-covered fallen trees, I finally found myself... back where I started.

As nothing is ever a complete loss, there were plenty of takeaways from this adventure.

• Expect the unexpected. Always.
• Snow may be harder to run in than sand.
• White men really can't jump (I've got a golf-ball-sized knot on my shin from trying to leap a dead tree to prove it).
• Duct tape does wonders for blisters (didn't feel a thing the entire run).
• Call ahead for trail conditions. 

And besides the hard-learned lessons there were definitely some bright spots. Charleston Peak or not, the views were pretty fantastic. Though my total mileage was just nine miles, my excursions up and down the avalanche chutes left me with a total ascent of just under 3,900' -- which is nearly the climb I would have had if I actually hit the peak. And, thankfully, I was right about one thing from the prelude: Mount Charleston lodge does, in fact, have some really kickin' ribs.

Because this is already really long, I'll spare the clever life-lesson tie-in (not getting what you want, taking untraveled trails, and so on). However, I started with part of a line from The Stones. I'd hope pretty much everyone could finish that line ("But if you try sometimes, you just might find, you get what you need.").

Pretty straight forward: You don't get exactly what you want (or what you think you want), but you get what you need. In my case, I wanted to run to the top of Charleston Peak. Is a 2.5 hour meandering voyage in sopping shoes through snow and mud what I needed? Eh, I don't think so. But sometimes, what you need just may be to simply not get what you want.

Now don't you go getting too comfortable Charleston. You won this time, but I'll be back. Oh yes, I will be back.


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