Cliff Bands

 

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I was still hurting from lack of food and my blisters were really killing me.  I had rebandaged them with touch moleskin, but the damage had been done.  I was really happy with myself for making it this far considering I almost turned back about four times on this hike.  I found myself in a strange place on this hike, it was high ups and low downs.  I literally jogged the first mile down the mountain out of sheer joy at having finished it.  Why?  I don't know.  Hiking seems a pretty frivilous and non-productive activity so why should I have felt so much happiness?  I don't know and don't care.  I was happy, be what it may mean.

The way down was much faster (obviously) and much less painful.  By the time I reached the bottom, I didn't even really feel my blisters anymore and my hunger had pretty much abated itself.  The trip down had better views now that the cloud cover had pretty much burned itself off.  It was also much hotter until I dropped back down into the denser foliage past the Alum Bluff area.

I met a lot more people on my way down than I did on my way up.  Mostly within a mile of the trailhead and parking lot.  There was an East Indian family who were trying their best to just put one foot in front of the other.  They stopped me and asked if there was anything shortly up the trail worth seeing.  I could tell by the desperate gleam in the very over-weight father's eye that he was looking for a way out, mano y mano, so he didn't have to endure the heat and incline anymore.  Had I been a nicer person, a more compassionate person, I would have given him the way out and said no, it was several more miles before you see anything cool.  As it was, I told him there was a really cool cave and bluff just a quarter mile up the trail (it was closer to 1 1/2 miles up the trail).  He thanked me profusely and took his family up the trail.

I think I uncurred some icky karma on that, but that balances out all my wonderful altruistic acts of kindness I dispense like Mardi Gras beads.  The rest of the way down was great.  I was able to very kindly tell the two Bailosauruses they missed a wonderful hike that I would recommend to anyone.