I Communed With Nature and Have the Bruises To Prove It
I thought it would be a good idea today to take the day off and take M to hike at Black Diamond Mines. I think the last time we hiked here was about 6 or 7 years ago. Plenty of time for me to forget how steep those friggin hills are. Many times I thought of telling M to just leave me to die there, but I was too thirsty and exhausted to even speak. Of course we took the long trail, because I like to torture myself. It was fine for the first half. It was one of the most beautiful autumn days today. At each plateau the scenary gets better and better. At the very top, you could look over and see the Antioch bridge, the delta and the valley of Clayton. The further you go up the mountain (it was pretty effing big to me) the sounds of civilation go away til all you can hear are the birds chirping, the ground cover rustling. It was very peaceful.
And agonizing. I though after all these months of walking I'd be in better shape to tackle these monstrous hills. I was completely and utterly wrong. At one point I was bent over so far to try and get some momentum up the hill I could have reached two inches and kissed the damn thing. Every time we reached another top M would say, this is it, it's all down hill from here. Every time he said it, which was about 5 times, I wanted to reach out and strike him dead. He's lucky I didn't have the strength. The highlight of the trip would have been when I tried to slide down between two rocks and actually summer-saulted down onto my bottom and slid some more landing on my knee and scratching up my leg. We had a good laugh. Well I did, M was probably panicking at thought of having to carry his abundant wife back to the car. I hope my laughter put his mind at ease. The only thing that got me back up that last hill was the thought of the french dip and Dr. Pepper waiting for me at Schooners. Let me tell you, it was one hell of a sandwich! Now pass the ibuprofin, I'm going to bed.
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