Down 30 Pounds and Out for Another Hike

Well, this morning I was down to 237.4 lbs! I was so excited! Today I haven't eaten everything that I could, but got a late start on my meals. I slept in for once, and when I got up and about I decided to do a hike up to Dragon's Tooth. It's a moderate to difficult hike with a lot of rock climbing/scampering involved. It's a great hike, but I haven't been up there in 5-6 years. When I started to plan the hike it was decently warm for this season, and it WASN'T raining. In the couple hours between planning and execution things changed! Thank God for raingear!

It got cold and wet pretty quickly. I ended up solo-hiking because none of the 15 people to whom I'd texted an invite responded. Their loss! ;-) My plan was to eat an orange before I left my car, and then cook my meal at the top. But as I was getting my raingear on and my pack ready another hiker came up and I started talking with him about the trail, my UFirst signs on the car, etc, and I forgot to eat the orange. I did, however, think it was in my pack...Wrong! About 45 minutes into the hike I stopped and was going to eat it. Much to my disappointment it wasn't there.







That meant no food until the top, because raw hamburger and cabbage just wasn't on my top 10 most wanted list! LOL! Since I'd left late and had slow going-due to wet rocks,picture taking, Twittering/Facebook posting, Texting, etc (Quit laughing at me! I'm a geek who likes to hike!) it took me an extra hour getting "almost" to the top. When I say almost, I mean to the "mountain goat ledges" before the "big metal staples" that they have in one spot due to the absolute steepness of the trail.



The ledges are approx 3-6 inches wide in most places, and you have to find toe/hand holds to climb up to them and maneuver along them to the top/right. On a dry day there're just a lot of fun (if you like to play on the rocks, which I do.)



Anyway, I didn't have a good feeling about being alone, in the rain and cold, that close to dark, trying to go any farther. If I was thru-hiking or even on an overnight hike with my resting spot on the other side of the climb it would have been different. But wisdom and the voice of the Holy Spirit telling me "no" caused me to turn around. (I'll be writing a post called "Faith, Foolishness, and Presumption" on my Faith-Bytes blog if you are interested in listening to what I have to say about the situation there.)

I turned around and headed back down the mountain. I thought about stopping to cook my meal along the trail, but the desire to get down off the steepest sections (almost 2 miles of the trail are steep and rocky) before it got too dark won out over a "cook-break". I made good time and got down the last of the really tough part by the time the light totally left me.

I should have only had a 30 minute night hike from there to the car, but...there's this little trail that intersects with the AT about 12 minutes from the road. I "so wisely" was NOT using my headlamp, because I could see the "glow" of the trail in the faint moonlight. I was actually looking for this trail as a landmark to know how far I had to go yet, but I missed the sign in the dark.

Unfortunately I didn't miss the trail! LOL! It was the more well trodden "glow" at the intersection, and I didn't pay attention to the blazes (yeah, remember, headlamp off). I hiked downhill a LONG way before I realized that something didn't "feel" right with the lay of the land/direction of the trail. I knew I was on a fairly well-used trail, but when I finally gave in and pulled out the headlamp and found a blaze...it was blue. Yeah, it was supposed to be white-if I'd been on the right trail. Well, a 20-minute all uphill hike brought me back to the AT. About 15 minutes later I was sitting in my car laughing at my extra "side-trip". No harm-no foul!

I drove to the little general store about 0.3 mile from where I'd parked, washed my hands and ATE MY ORANGE! LOL! It was soooooo good! I'd done the whole ~5 miles on only water and a cup of coffee. But the great part was, I still had lots of energy! And it wasn't that I was even really hungry, I'd just been thinking about that orange for a while!

I got done with my hike just in time to make it to church for prayer at 7pm on the dot. I was wet and cold, still in my rain gear, and I looked a mess! But I was on time! After prayer I cooked my <300 calorie cabbage-tomato-beef soup and headed to my (ministry) office to catch up on some work (which is where I'm at right now).

Despite the rain and cold, I had a great hike today and enjoyed the climbing. I just wish I had someone with whom I could share experiences like that...