life as practice
Those of you who know me, know I enjoy hiking now and then. TioTony is really the one who got me a lot more into it, and for that, I’m quite thankful. Now, in what seems to have become my near-monthly review of iTunes for new podcasts, I’ve found one that looks seriously interesting. Not that my vintage 4th gen black and white click-wheel iPod will play them, but none the less I’ve subscribed.
It promises ‘An Almost Unabridged Expedition Experience’. Can’t wait to watch these. Enjoy.
Well, we didn’t make it. More correctly stated, my body couldn’t make it. hahaha…
So we started out our day as planned and everything went as expected. Got up in our usual style… SLOW. Prior to leaving we each weighed our packs, out of curiosity mostly. TioTony’s weighed in at 49 pounds and mine at 45 pounds. Yes, quite hefty. Well, we got up and past Halfway Camp on our way to the evening’s destination, High Camp. About halfway between the two, my body decided to stop. Heart racing, shortness of breath, and (to state it nicely) stomach wanted to make itself empty, I pretty much shut down. Exhaustion kicked in, and it kicked in hard. Thought I could try to rest it out but taking three steps uphill kicked it right back in.
So, long story short, we made the call to backtrack down to Halfway Camp and made that home for the night. TioTony recently bought a very nice new 2 person 4 season Mountain Hardware tent. I figured there was a possibility to rest and try again since we packed for 2 nights, but, after a night of about 1–2 hours of sleep due to the above mentioned symptoms we made the call to head down the mountain.
I did take a few pictures and will post them soon. Not positive they’ll be as nice as Prince Roy’s summit trip of Yu Shan in Taiwan, but they should be nice. 😉
I would have liked to have made the summit, but, I’m not sad I didn’t. I believe that’s one of the things I enjoy about hiking; either way is rewarding. In a way you can look at it this way; knowing when to stop is probably even more important than actually making the summit. Allowing to remove the ego, at least enough to turn around and go back down, is enough of a reward for me.
So TioTony and I are planning a trip to summit San Gorgonio this weekend. Our previous attempt was unsuccessful, but, e also tried to lug ourselves up in in a day. This time we’re allowing ourselves three. The plan is to meet at his house Friday morning, hit the trail head as early as possible, and make it to High Camp that evening. This should allow us time to acclimatize a little before heading off for the summit. Last time, when we attempted a day trip up, each of us heard the little voices in our heads saying “no silly, this is as far as you’re going”, and stopped around 10,500 feet.
Then Saturday morning, we’re planning to wake up have a wonderful breakfast of instant oatmeal and instant coffee, then head off to summit. This should make us successful, if not, we’re just sad and probably will never make it. haha.
Here is some interesting information about the mountain from gorp.away.com: ‘11,502-foot Mount San Gorgonio — the highest peak in southern California.’
Wish us luck, I’ll talk to you after the trip to let you know how we do.