One of the obvious bonuses of observing is that it usually means you are on or near mountains. And for someone who loves climbing and hiking, that is hard to beat. After a bit of chatting with the previous observer, I had some information on a nice local hike accessible from the telescope. After a nice breakfast this morning I set out around noon with the intention of hiking as far as I could in an hour before turning around. This would give me a solid 2 hour hike and let me get back to the dorms with enough time to prepare for the night’s observing.
I mapped out the hike, starting near the summit of Mt. Hopkins and doing down the main road a ways before branching off towards the saddle. I lost a bit of time trying to find the fairly obscured trailhead, but was eventually on my way. The hike was quite pleasant with a little bit of snow on the trail to keep things interesting. I made it about halfway across the saddle towards Mt. Wrightson before turning back. Naturally I brought my camera, so here are a few pics from the hike…
More pictures were added to the set MMT Observing on flickr
