bensrib: Oh, the exhaustion!

Who'd have thought a harmless little walk in the woods could be so hard?

A few people from our Sunday school class went to hike in the mountains of Virginia today. We wound up doing 10–11 miles and climbing from 1400 to a little over 3000 feet, and if you think that's no big deal then you'd better check with my legs.

It was a perfect day for it: cloudy, good breeze, few bugs, not too many people.

Looks easy enough, right?

Man-boy got a little overheated and dunked his head in a mountain stream. You should have heard the screaming! It was a little chilly.

We went down first, to about 1400 feet elevation, and found a creek. We also found a copperhead (that's a snake, in case you didn't know).

Back up to 2200 feet and we're trying to figure out which way we want to go. We're parked at Humpback Rocks parking. Yes, that says 11 miles. Somehow we cut off part of that. Don't ask me how, I was a follower today.

Got back to the parking area and decided we needed to climb to Humpback Rocks. I think the altitude was affecting our better judgment. So we started up a wide, easy trail and then came to a fork in the path. A guy who had been there before told us that although the left side was steeper, it was half as long, so we opted for the quick torture rather than the slow, painful death. Pictures don't do this trail justice; it was a bend-over-and-grab-the-next-root kind of climb. Twenty feet and stop for breath.

See that pointy thing? That's where we're going. I was thankful for every minute I ever spent on the bike and treadmill, and for every leg press I ever did.

This was the view when we topped the last rock.

Abbie made me get out on the rock so she could take my picture. I am petrified of heights and what you can't tell from this photo is that I am a good 25 feet from the edge and still scared to death. That smile is totally fake.