It was nice and cool out, with a stiff breeze and intermittent clouds over the sun when we started out on our walk. By the time we made it to the trailhead, the sun was out for good and we were too low to catch the breeze. Sob. It was pretty hot. We met an older couple with a red husky; I'm not sure, but I'd say the husky was pretty old too. It had a white face anyway, so that was no help, but its pelt seemed a bit faded, and its movements cautious. I don't know. No adventures this morning, anyway, for which I am grateful. And Philip was there when we got home.
Philip napped straight through lunch, and then I embarked on the campaign to get him off the couch and into town for groceries. I was foiled--at least in the latter aim--by a phone call from Ben, who was doing the Incline and wondered if Philip wanted to come. Philip did, and asked if I wanted to come. I supposed so if Lark could come? I was fairly sure I was going to regret it, but by the time Ben said, no, no dogs in his car, I was kinda committed, mentally. So I went. Ben was driving, and besides Phil and me in the backseat there was Tom, his roommate, who wasn't going on the Incline but wanted to do some running on the trail. So off we went. The main point of the drive there, as far as I'm concerned, was when I spotted three bighorn sheep in a meadow at Glen Eyrie. We went by too fast for me to get an alert out, and I was still uncertain that they were indeed bighorns by the time we were past. So we went through Manitou, and eventually found Parking, and spent a minute or two wondering whether or not to wait for the impending storm to blow over or just go up. The ayes had it for "just go up." So we did. I was already having trouble long before we made it to the steps. Philip made me keep going. They decided I'd better set the pace, which meant, among other things, that we stopped pretty much whenever I decided to. This was nice. Anyway, Philip pushed me on, with Ben providing the voice of experience, and we climbed. And climbed. And climbed. Climbed quite a lot, really. Met some interesting people. We leapfrogged most of the way with a man in a red shirt who was trying for the second time that day. A woman with a beautiful bloodhound puppy running extremely elongated ovals around her passed us both coming and going. A girl--younger than me--with her dad were trying it for I think the fifth time, having made it so far only two-thirds of the way, a record they surpassed today. And there were some young men heading down at speed. Not very high speed, and sideways, but I was pretty irritated until the first one slipped. He didn't fall, but I felt a little better. Philip and I turned to head down when we were three-quarters of the way, leaving Ben to go the rest of the way and catch up to us later. Feh. We turned onto the trail, which connects with the stairs at about the two-thirds point, and took it down. Tom overtook us shortly, and Ben caught us with a good way left to go. My legs were pretty tired by then, with the left calf threatening to give way. I hoped I wouldn't need it for anything particularly serious, because if I needed to, for instance, break a fall, I was in trouble. Fortunately there were no crises for it to betray me in, and by the time we reached the bottom, it had more or less steadied. My feet were beginning to complain a bit, though. A light rain began up on the trail, and it was beginning to get serious when we made it to the car. The culverts were full by the time we got to Boonzaijer's for the Traditional Ben & Tom Post-Incline Dessert, a tradition Philip and I were happy to support. Having left home about noon, it was a bit after five when we got home. I was ready for a nap, but we still had the shopping to do. This was successfully navigated, as was the preparation of dinner. It remains to be seen if I can survive both the after-dinner movie and getting to bed; walking Lark is out of the question. I did manage to get over to feed the cat, though, and got the mail. Aren't you impressed?
2 comments:
Hooray! The Incline! Must get boys there, someday. You don't mention the views -- I hope you could look east once in a while.
Yeah, good luck. Have Phil or Ben do it. And the view was fantastic--I stopped pretty frequently, and the view helps one regain the ability to breathe. I don't think I was able to breath through my nose again until we were on the trail heading down, though.
I could see the plains. <3
Post a Comment