Thursday, May 09, 2013

I’ve written before about hiking with 18 year olds.  It is a privilege.  It is also not necessarily the smartest thing I do.  The main advantage is that they are much more likely to have to carry me down the mountain after my heart attack than I am to have to carry them.  The big disadvantage is that they are 18.  Last night, we had planned to hike our normal route up Baldy and then on to Blacktail, which is a rocky peak about 2 miles from the top of Baldy.  We knew it would be take some extra time, so we agreed to meet at 6 PM rather than 7, because if I don’t have them on their way home by 9 on a school night, either I will be in trouble with their parents or they may turn into pumpkins…..or is that midnight?  Anyway, trying to make up for lost time (and maybe show off a bit), I led the trek up the trail from our house.  This is the steepest part of the trail-nice because you are fresh, but dangerous because the temptation to burn out early is very real.  Now when we are only going to the top of Baldy, I can afford to squander my motive force early, but climbing another 2 miles to the base of Blacktail, I should tuck my pride away and just take it easy for the long haul.  Naturally, I did not do that and by the time we got to the top of Baldy, my legs were already feeling like rubber.  We did make it in good time, though.  Then, off to Blacktail.  Baldy  had little snow on the west face we climbed, The trail to Blacktail was all snow.  Generally, by May 1, the snow is in definite regression, but this has been an odd May and the last 4 inches were only laid down a few days ago.  Post-holing and high stepping for 2 miles did finally get us to the base of the mountain.  Somehow, they arrived several minutes before I did.  I looked at my watch which said 8:15 and I said, “Another 40 minutes to the top of Blacktail.”  My thighs were feeling like they belonged to Gumby and one of the young men says, “Well, I don’t think we have time.  We had better go back.”  He was really just looking at how pitiful I was and maybe actually afraid he might have to carry me down.  Anyway, we turned around and 2 short miles later, were once again at Baldy summit.  A highlight: two snow-white Ptarmigan sitting on the exposed rocks pretending they were invisible by the side of the trail. We did get to slide down the snowy face, and it was a grand slide.  The snow was the texture of a loose snow cone, without the flavoring.  Tromping down the steepest part of the trail was really a mud slide clear down to the house, but we got there at 9:10, and they hadn’t even started to turn a little bit orange.