35 Minutes

This image is at the trail marker at the bottom of the Piestewa Peak summit trail, which I climbed this morning. The images that follow are in chronological order.

Piestewa Peak is a mountain near my home that was renamed for Lori Piestewa, who is believed to be the first Native American female soldier killed in combat on foreign soil. Piestewa was friends with Jessica Lynch and died on March 23, 2003, in the battle that Lynch was taken prisoner. This pair of images are about 3 and 4 minutes into the walk.

Just one month ago, the U. S. Board on Geographic Names made the renaming of the peak official. Formerly known as Squaw Peak, the renaming was something of a controversy in the Valley.

This image is at 10 1/2 minutes into my hike.

The renaming story literally relates anatomy and geography. I am of the belief that language is formed by its users, not just the academics. Without describing the entire incident, I will say that people that know better still refer to the mountain by its old name – a fact that makes me quite sad.

It is just over a mile to the top. The challenge is that the elevation change in that mile is nearly 1150 feet. I had only gotten about 5 hours sleep. Today being Mother’s Day, I had the idea that I would climb and be back to the house before the day had really started. The climb made me very tired, and I was a slow mover for the rest of the day.

The last two images are at 17 minutes in and at the 31 1/2 minute point. The latter is just a few minutes below the summit. It took 35 minutes to get to the top.