Buddy Trip 2008 - Off Roading and The Death Hike
October 6, 2008 Posted by Al Castle
4comments Categories: Family, Fitness, Friends, gnash-teeth
Tags: Buddy Trip, Built like the Hulk, Death Hike, Off Roading
For the first three days, each evening we ate pretty well, steak, potatoes, salad one night, asparagus, salmon, salad and French bread another night. We even made pizza on a pizza stone atop the fire, yeah that one didn’t turn out too well. In the mornings of those three days, bagels, eggs and sausage.
[Note: Jason who is on east coast time woke me up extra early. The bastard.]
We had great weather, every day we managed to go exploring, a good portion involved taking Jims Honda where only 4×4 vehicles should be going up the sides of mountains. In some places the “trails” where so overgrown the trees and branches were scraping the side of his car so hard he lost the passenger side mirror and made what he calls Mississippi racing strips on his car. Or was it Missouri racing stripes?
In many places we had to get out of the car to remove trees, large rocks, check the “road” ledge to see if it would support the cars weight instead of falling down a high cliff, and also remove branches that were stuck underneath the car, burning on the muffler.
On Monday I believe it was, Jim wanted to take us to a lake high up in the mountains that he’d been to years before. Nothing too hard for the soft bellied Jason and myself. Well we were out there for hours and hours and miles upon miles, scrambling up and down steep hills at higher and higher elevations. In what was referred to as the Death Hike for the remainder of the vacation, primarily because it was an excruciating hike, I was sweating so bad Jim was worried he’d have to hide my body somewhere.
Jim didn’t “remember” it being this bad, it was supposed to be an easy day hike, so Jason and I only brought one 16 ounce water bottle a piece and no food of any kind. I lost at least 5 lbs in sweat the first hour. Fortunately nature provided for us. Everywhere there was huckleberries and blueberries. I broke off branches full of berries and gnawed at them for the sugar and water. It’s important to note that I don’t like blueberries at all, but this was survival. It was the most brutal terrain and I’m surprised I made it. My brain kept pushing my body, and my body kept telling my brain it was an idiot. That it should lie down and let the scavengers enjoy a tasty Mexican dinner.
I knew we were headed to a body of water, and three times when we stopped for a break it was near a body of water. Yet each time that wasn’t the end of the trail. I was too scared to ask how much farther because it was all I could do to make each foot lift in front of the other. When we finally made it to the lake, which I’ll admit was beautiful I realized we’d have to make it back. I had secretly been hoping Jim would be taking us on a round about way back to where we left the car, that the way back would be easier or perhaps he’d already called for a helicopter, despite that we had no cell phone signal anywhere in this area despite being atop a mountain.
[Note: Most of you who read this know I've been hitting the gym, on the bike machine, tread mill, and crunching weights. Hiking this kind of terrain works muscles machines don't, the high altitude makes it worse and I can say without a doubt gyms are for sissies. Now when I walk down a street I feel like the incredible hulk. I'm consciously careful not to crack the sidewalk with my powerful strides. My legs are things of beauty, muscles rippling like a jungle cats and they're finally, today, not sore anymore.]
That was the worst of the excursions, the rest were certainly hard and at higher
altitudes (7000 or so feet), but we always brought a ton of water and food. When we went through a forest of burnt dead trees, I picked the highest point we could see and we just scrambled up the side of the mountain to reach it. My legs ached and burned, but once we reached the tops of these peaks the view was great.
I’ve got tons more pictures and I’ll upload them to Flickr once I finish going through them all.
Stay tuned for more about the rest of the trip.
