Piece of cake

Drat, it was spitting snow when we got going to hike.  But it looked like the sky was clearing in the west, so we went on.  Our plan was to hike Doe Mesa, a 4618 ft flattop with an impressive switchback trail leading up the 410 ft.  Bah, piece of cake! A drugged monkey could do it!  I am a hiking machine…..no problem.

BIG problem.  The switchback trails are AWFUL.  They are moderately steep, yes, but that’s not the catch. The catch is that there is a lot of erosion on said switchbacks, and it is frigging STEEP, with nothing, can I repeat that, nothing to catch you until you land back down at the bottom somewhere near your car in the parking lot, which, about 10 minutes into the climb, looks like a tiny green ant.

I had my two walking sticks, which helped, and I did make it up to the top of the mesa. The view was incredible.  We walked all around the top, and had lunch and a drink sitting near the edge (not too near the edge, there was a lot of wind up there), but all the while I was enjoying the view, I was trying to squash down my creeping panic that I’d have to go DOWN those switchbacks.

As everyone sane knows, it’s much harder going down the steep and incredibly scary mountain than it is going up.  You can’t just look toward the uphill side and keep on walking; you have to actually pay close attention to your feet and your imminent death.

I had an accident 10 years ago that required a plate and screws in my fibula/ankle, so that foot doesn’t work as well as the other. Sometimes it doesn’t lift my toes as it should, and sometimes it has trouble sensing the uneven ground. Uneven ground?? Are you kidding me? On a horrible trail on the side of the mountain?

To cut to the aftermath of the chase, I made it down, slowly and painstakingly.  I’m such a wimp.  But I did it.

The funny thing, if there is a funny thing, is that I had said that the Peralta Trail was the scariest trail I have ever been on (and I’ve done the Grand Canyon trails to the bottom twice, on mules), but now, just 3 days later, I have to revise that opinion……..yikes, what’s next?

After I lived thru the Doe Mesa trail, had a drink and a change of underwear, we did a 3 mile Boynton Canyon hike.  Piece of cake. Which, by the way, I had for dessert after dinner.  Felt I deserved it.  So there.