Cable line detour

Sign along the Cable Line trail

The West Tiger Cable Line trail is a rough, steep, and poorly kept route that parallels in some places the Tiger 3 trail on Tiger Mountain, and which reaches the same summit, at 2,500 feet elevation. Today I abandoned the traditional trail at the 1-mile mark and followed a narrow path that joined up with the Cable Line trail. It shortened my hike to the top by perhaps a half mile, but it made up for the shorter route by being steeper and more daunting.

Today's plan gave me an opportunity to check Map My Hike software against known points on the Mountain. For example, the elevation gains reported on Map My Hike indicated that the one-mile mark is at approximtely the 1,200 foot elevation level, which means I gain 700 feet elevation by climbing from the trailhead to the one mile mark. Then Map My Hike indicated another 1,000-foot elevation gain to get to the summit. The actual summit figure is 2,522, so I believe the software understates the actual elevation gain. For today's hike I'm going with the official figures and claiming a 2,000-foot elevation gain.

The images immediately below show, left to right, the path from trailhead to the one-mile marker; the Cable Line climb from the one-mile marker to the summit; and the descent from the summit. The Cable Line doesn't intersect the Tiger 3 trail at the point where I joined it, but it comes close.

The Cable Line trail can be deeply gullied; here it is characterised by gravel and clutter.

And here it is a curving and slippery.

The hike was made uncomfortable by the presence of allergens that kept my nose flowing, complicated by the oversight of not bringing handkerchiefs. Fortunately my backpack came with a roll of toilet paper.

Climbing the Cable Line trail acquainted me with an interesting phenomenon: On several occasions my heart rate topped out at 128 bpm -- but some beats were stronger than others. So while my pulse didn't get any higher, the pulses were stronger, indicating more fluid being pumped. This happened on the steeper slopes, where I was working harder.

I'm going to claim 5 miles, although I think I hiked farther. And I claim as well a 2,000-foot gain.

Statistics for the day:
Distance year to date: 32.5 miles
Elevation gain year to date: 8,665 feet.
Weight carried: 13 pounds
Speed:  2-hours to the summit.