Climbing
Went hiking this morning with my brother, up in Ventura County. I'd been wanting for some time to tackle Mt. Bony. I know, it's a weird name. Well, it wasn't my idea. The name, I mean--the hike definitely was.
We started out at about 7:30am. The sun was out but it was cold in the shade. We weren't sure of the trail, and neither of us had a map, but we figured all we had to do was keep going up and we were bound to get there.
And get there we did, in only an hour and 45 minutes. The last 45 minutes was probably the toughest--a lot of scrambling over rocks and under and through tangled undergrowth. At one point I couldn't see my brother who was ahead of me on the trail, so he raised his walking stick high into the air as a guide to let me know where the trail was. For some reason I wanted to call him Gandalf at that point.
We finally got pretty much to the top where we broke out the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we'd brought. By that time I was so hungry that I think rocks might have tasted pretty good, but I was glad we'd brought the sandwiches. That was the best PB&J I've had in a long time.
We met some people along the way. Which was good because we met them just at the point where we thought we were lost and wouldn't be able to make it to the top. They set us straight. We left them behind, but they caught up to us later. One of them, an Asian man named Koe (I don't know how to spell it) caught up and then left US behind. This guy was amazing. He must have legs like iron. My brother and I followed after him awhile later, and got lost again. As we scouted around looking for a trail, we heard...a harmonica. We looked around, but couldn't see anyone at first. We began to make our way up again, since that was where the harmonica seemed to be coming from. Eventually we stumbled back onto the trail, and not long after that met Koe again, coming back down. He was pleased to see us, and surprised that we had heard him playing the harmonica. Yes indeed, he was our phantom musician! How he managed to have any breath left in him to play a wind instrument after blazing his way to the top of the peak was beyond me, and I was just a tad in awe. We said goodbye, and then he zoomed off down the trail. The guy must have had rockets in his shoes or something.
It took us another couple hours to get down the mountain, and by then I felt like my legs were fed up enough that they might just detach themselves from my body and lie down in the middle of the trail, refusing to go any farther. I wouldn't have blamed them in the least.
At noon we made it back to the car, exhausted but pretty pleased with ourselves for accomplishing what we had set out to do. It's always nice when that actually happens in life, isn't it?
We started out at about 7:30am. The sun was out but it was cold in the shade. We weren't sure of the trail, and neither of us had a map, but we figured all we had to do was keep going up and we were bound to get there.
And get there we did, in only an hour and 45 minutes. The last 45 minutes was probably the toughest--a lot of scrambling over rocks and under and through tangled undergrowth. At one point I couldn't see my brother who was ahead of me on the trail, so he raised his walking stick high into the air as a guide to let me know where the trail was. For some reason I wanted to call him Gandalf at that point.
We finally got pretty much to the top where we broke out the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we'd brought. By that time I was so hungry that I think rocks might have tasted pretty good, but I was glad we'd brought the sandwiches. That was the best PB&J I've had in a long time.
We met some people along the way. Which was good because we met them just at the point where we thought we were lost and wouldn't be able to make it to the top. They set us straight. We left them behind, but they caught up to us later. One of them, an Asian man named Koe (I don't know how to spell it) caught up and then left US behind. This guy was amazing. He must have legs like iron. My brother and I followed after him awhile later, and got lost again. As we scouted around looking for a trail, we heard...a harmonica. We looked around, but couldn't see anyone at first. We began to make our way up again, since that was where the harmonica seemed to be coming from. Eventually we stumbled back onto the trail, and not long after that met Koe again, coming back down. He was pleased to see us, and surprised that we had heard him playing the harmonica. Yes indeed, he was our phantom musician! How he managed to have any breath left in him to play a wind instrument after blazing his way to the top of the peak was beyond me, and I was just a tad in awe. We said goodbye, and then he zoomed off down the trail. The guy must have had rockets in his shoes or something.
It took us another couple hours to get down the mountain, and by then I felt like my legs were fed up enough that they might just detach themselves from my body and lie down in the middle of the trail, refusing to go any farther. I wouldn't have blamed them in the least.
At noon we made it back to the car, exhausted but pretty pleased with ourselves for accomplishing what we had set out to do. It's always nice when that actually happens in life, isn't it?
posted by grackyfrogg @ 3:49 PM
1 Comments:
At 1:23 PM ,
Anonymous said...
Good work guys, way to show that mountain. Sounds almost as challenging as "the mystery walk" back in NZ, the trail walk....that has no trail.
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