Smoked

This first picture has pretty much nothing to do with the hike we went on yesterday. But...it is a snake that we saw along the trail of a hike we went on a couple days ago. And I screamed. And I wouldn't walk by it, even though we decided that it was probably dead. And WHY is there a snake ALREADY in the road? I always loved early spring, because I felt it wasn't hot enough for snakes and scary things along the trail, so I felt safer. Hmph.

Now, for the story of getting smoked by an old man. Yesterday Sterling and I left the house fairly early---not quite as early as planned because I ended up lending a pair of pants to a good friend---and starting hiking Malan's Peak. Both of us have hiked it once, with people who knew where it was. Neither of us had quite as sharp of a memory, and were a little confused, but confident we were heading in the right general direction, when we came upon a very able-looking old man. Sterling and I introduced ourselves and I asked him, Dennis, if we were on the right track for Malan's Peak. He said we were, and if we followed him, that was right where he was headed. So we did. Previously in our hike there had been laughter and singing. Now, I was lucky to get in sucking breaths. I thought I was going to die. But I couldn't be beaten by an old man....so I kept going.....for awhile. Until I knew I really was going to die, and then I stopped, and made Sterling stop with me. Dennis kept going.

We made it, in our own time (in Sterling's defense, he was keeping up just fine--even though he was surprised at Dennis "bookin it") and passed Dennis one more time. He informed us that he was in the paper last year for climbing Malan's Peak 1000 times in a row. Through snow and winter and everything. Which was quite impressive because we ended up not quite going to the top because there was still so much snow, and then it was snowing/hailing on us...and really, I was cold. It's a really fun hike though, but quite steep, and a lot harder than I remembered. Oh wait, last time I went I was in MUCH better shape. Hmph.