Weeklong Backpacking: Day 4

Down, down, down, the hill kept going. Four miles of very steep switchbacks heading down. I was separated from the lead group with Steven, Austin, Patrick, and two leaders. It was very uncomfortable going down because you can’t go too fast or you’ll go at a dangerous running speed, but the speed you are going at is too slow. This made the hike down the most painful four miles that I had ever experienced. And that wasn’t even the end. After four miles down, there were three miles flat and 1 mile up. After that we would get to the campsite. At least we were staying for two nights.

Each step hurt more and more and my knee was starting to act up. Just when I thought I would be reduced to a horribly pain ridden bag of bones lying on the side of the trail, the hill just ended. No gradual curvy ending. It just stopped and was flat. A terrific ending for a horrible four miles. We were all hungry, so our group decided to speed up because we knew that the others had to be close. As we got closer, we heard voices and as we rounded a corner we saw the rest of the group sitting down, ready for lunch. We were lucky that Steven had the food because the others looked like they wanted to eat us.

The lunch was PB+J on Tortillas, and I didn’t find it to be a good trail meal. However, others did, and after a short break we left stomach’s full, no matter if we liked it or not.

We were thundering down the trail, but Austin was close behind. I was with Patrick, and Austin came after us. We had taken a break before, and Austin still wanted to rest, so I got paired with Patrick for my race up. My goal was to beat Austin to the bridge that marked the beginning of up hill, and I told Patrick this. However we were slow and Austin overcame us a ¼ mile from the bridge. Patrick jumped back to join a leader and Austin and I were grouped. After we were hiking for a bit, Austin started running. I didn’t know why he was doing this, because we were going at a fast pace already. Once I got to the bridge, I crossed in wonder. This bridge must have been a 100 feet over some rapids, and was built with metal and wood. It must have taken a long time and a lot of work to build this.

When I got to the other side, I saw Steven resting on a rock. He told me that Austin flew past him and that we should wait for the two last scouts, then go on. We waited until we could see them, waved, and started our 1 mile trek up the mountain.

We were going up in the style of one of our leaders, who had done this part of the trail twenty years ago. He took slow long steps with no breaks. While we did this, we talked about Microsoft and Windows, restaurants, and whatever crossed our minds. It was really fun and a relaxing way of getting to the top. We soon got to the top and were the only ones smiling. The others were panting, but we had kept a good pace. Steven and I slept in a tent without a rain fly again, and the stars seemed to be much more beautiful after what it took to get there on the longest day of our journey yet.