Killer Hike part 2 3-13

The foot path eventually meets up with the road that goes up to the radio site at the top of the hill. We noticed it was paved; we thought at first…kind of odd for way out here, but we figured it out almost immediately. It was so killer STEEP that it needed to be paved so the vehicles the people use to get up there have traction going up and don’t slide off going down! Larry has been to a LOT of radio hilltops of course and I have been to my share of them with him, this wasn’t the steepest Larry has seen, but it was the longest steep road he had been on.

Now of course we realized it would be slow going, but until you start trucking up something that steep you don’t get how SLOW it will be and painful it will be and how you’ll feel like you are gonna die and how you think that you’ve made it THIS far you can make it to the top and…well you get my drift. It was only about three quarters of a mile, but it felt like five miles. Of course the corker is that people older than me had hiked it AND Larry could have been up and back in the time it took me to get myself up there, BUT it was worth it.

It was just such a gorgeous day and the views were pretty and the flowers kept me happy, but I had to stop and rest quite a few times and as we got closer to the top it was touch and go there a couple times for me whether I was gonna be sick. Partway up there is a resting rock, which I took advantage of…and then closer to the top the road bent and there was a piece in the shade that had rocks jutting out that I sat on and the rocks were still cool so that was somewhat refreshing. I considered at that point, stopping…the view was pretty good from there, but I HAD to get to the top. Though now I was worrying about going back down.

I made it and I signed into the book that they have up there, but there was actually another ridge top further along, as I was pooped and had to go back down, I gave Larry the camera and gave him my blessing…leave my carcass here in the shade and report back. I sat in the shade of one of the radio buildings and enjoyed the view, meditated, thought about how crazy people are to kill themselves to get to the top of mountains and enjoyed the breeze blowing through my sweat soaked hair and feeling the sweat trail all down my body….didn’t notice that while straining my way to the top, ick.

Larry was gone about 20 minutes or so and told me I didn’t really miss seeing too much because there were more ridges in the way. He said he would have liked to have seen them get all the concrete to the top that they used on all the buildings…there isn’t a lot of room to turn anything around up there. Hard to picture a cement truck making that road!

Going back down was no picnic either, but at least it was quicker. I was happy that my legs didn’t “noodle” on me after the climb up the hill, it was a concern, BUT it was really painful on the toes as they were jammed into the toes of our shoes at the sharp down angle we were walking. At this point I was really, really happy that it was paved and I didn’t have to slip around on loose rocks…I’m no mountain goat and even with my all terrain shoes I suspect my derriere would have made contact with the dirt a few times. We stopped at a short flat spot and I zipped off my pant leg bottoms so I would be cooler. After the pain of getting up the mountain I didn’t care about getting nipped by a rattlesnake!

So we made it down the mountain, now it was time to decide which path to take back…the foot path or see what the vehicle road was like………More tomorrow.

Today I was still feeling sore…calves and toes still, but I was able to get by without taking any Ibu’s. Larry decided to take his walk after stretching; I got myself together, made coffee, put on my shoes and sat outside reading….with the thought that I would catch Larry as he passed by for his last lap and would go along….HA…great timing for me….I missed him…..ah, too bad, so sad….he walked up and was looking at his completion time, he was done. Being the generous guy that he is, he offered to go around again with me….no, no, I said…that was okay…..tee hee; Time for toast…laugh.

We went over for coffee and then after we got back we decided we would go to El Centro, I needed something at the mall and we had some things we needed at Costco, it’s about an hour from here. We hit a flock, a group, a….I don’t know what you call a bunch of bugs…any way they slammed all over the windshield, we never figured out what they may have been…yuck. El Centro is around 36,000 people and we were of course the minority. We heard just about nothing but Spanish in the mall, even the sales people of course.

It hit about 80 today and was a little breezy, but another lovely day.

These last pictures are of the dunes in California west of Yuma.