Day 42

July 20, 2017                                                                                                    Day 42

Last night I barely slept for it was like the Fast and Furious in the Walmart parking lot.  People were setting off car alarms, revving their engines, and making so much noise.  By 06:00 I was on the road and headed to Palisade, CO to hike Mount Garfield per my friend Josh's suggestion.

Today I learned two valuable lessons.  The first and most important one is to NEVER take hiking advice from my friend again! He informed me that the hike wasn't that difficult that one goes up a steep incline, hits a meadow and then one just has to go up a little further and then one is at the summit.  He purposely lied to me about the length and difficulty of the hike just so that I would do it!  By the way Josh, you know I say all of this out of love :-P  Lets begin with me pulling into the parking area, of which I am the only one there, and I look up this mountain of dirt that seemed to shoot straight up.  It looked like a hell of a hike but with the information he gave me I figured I would be able to do it.  Ha.  The entire hike was at an incline of at least 45 degrees or more and not even a quarter mile in I was already in pain and out of breath!  To give one an idea of the difficulty of this hike it was literally the stair-master to hell on expert level.  Eventually, I made it to the meadow which was only a reprieve of about 20 steps without an incline.  There I sat on a rock to rest and eat some trail mix and suck on a piece of hard candy since I was getting dizzy.

I talked myself into standing back up for I just had one more incline to go and then I would be at the summit so I could do this.  When I finally made it up the second and "last" incline I was so relieved to had made it to the top only to be standing there looking at another incline like I was just hit in the face and didn't know what happened.  I then texted my friend asking why the hell there is another incline after he told me there were only two.  You want to know what his response was?!  He responded, "Lovely meadows right."  I could have murdered him if he was there.  Well at this point, I had already made it this far and in my stubborn nature there was no way in hell I was turning around for now I was dedicated to this hike.

This is where my second lesson came in, which I guess is not really a lesson but just verifying a reason to what I do, and that is that I am thankful that every time I go on a hike no matter how short I carry a pack with everything I might need if something happens and I am stuck out for a night and that I carry way more water than I need.  The hike itself was only four miles but was very strenuous due to the incline and heat.  When I finally made it to the top I was completely exhausted and felt dizzy so I found some shade, reapplied with sunscreen and ate some food.

The view on top of Mount Garfield was pretty amazing for one was looking out over the valley and there was a refreshing breeze.  At the top, I came across a gangster looking chipmunk, multiple lizards, and while I was sitting on the ledge with my legs hanging over the rock two peregrine falcons came flying by at the same level as me!  I sat up there for about 15 minutes trying to talk myself into the climb back down for I knew it would be easier on my lungs but more difficult on my legs.  Heading back down was indeed a steep and perilous descent for the earth crumbled beneath each step I took.  When I was almost to the bottom I passed a guy that was heading up the trail and we exchanged greetings.

By the time I reached my vehicle I literally collapsed into my car and with my legs propped up on the door just laid there contemplating whether by body was going to give up on me or not. As I laid there, the guy I had met earlier was coming back down and as he entered the parking lot he asked if I was having car trouble.  Soon we got to talking and found out that we were both from Wisconsin and planned to hang out the rest of the day and have a well deserved drink.  The rest of the evening was spent hanging out, meeting his roommates (another guy was also from Wisconsin) and they even let me take an actually shower at their place.  I find it so interesting that after being in South Carolina for three to four years now when I meet someone else from Wisconsin I can't get over their accent and wonder do I really sound like that? Ha.

Yes...that is the trail