My Everest

I love to watch the reality shows that feature the ascent of Everest and I am intrigued about how hard it is to get to the top. All speak of how you take a step and then have to take five breaths. Today, I experienced this for the first time in my life and it was very humbling.

Despite my size, I have been averaging at least a hour of aerobic activity a day since I was 15 years old. From 15 to 35, I ran marathons and did triathlons and since then, I have been walking marathons and such.

A few years ago I got a Garmin GPS watch and have been walking at least 40 miles a week and have hit 70,80 and even 90 a week at times. With all this background, I never thought I experience an Everest like experience but I did on this hike.

Now most of my walking is on the flat bike path and the only hills I get are at the Panorama Bluffs once or twice a week. They are okay hills but do not compare to Mt Pinos or Mt Abel. Plus there was a third mountain in our way Sawmill.

These monsters were not expected by me or the other two newbies at all. The Mt Whitney hike is over twenty miles long and peaks out at over 14,000 feet but it is basically a long climb up and then downhill. When I heard we were going to Frazier Park, I expected to do a similar hike but boy was I in for a surprise.

Instead of climbing from Frazier Park to the top of Mt Pinos, which would be the same elevation gain and close in mileage, we started much higher on the mountain. Our trek would be from the Mt Pinos parking lot to Mt Abel and back. Route HERE. So the day started at the parking lot, where amazingly about ten or more star gazers were already set up with their massive telescopes for the evenings activities.

We loaded up for our hike and had to entertain some whacked out hippy chick and her dog. The lady looked like she was right of the counter culture era and talked like she had taken a lot of drugs. She made us glad that the stargazers where there to keep an eye on our car.

The first two miles of the hike were what I expected and hope Mt Whitney will be like. We climbed about 400 feet and the path was on a fire road. The view from the top Mt Pinos was very nice and the air felt thinner but there was a problem. I could not see anything remotely flat for miles around. When I saw where we were going, all I saw was steep downhills and steep uphills and we were in for a long hard day. It ended up being much harder then I ever imagined.

too be continued ...