The Hike

As fine as our week was I do have to report that Nick tried to kill me and he damn near succeeded. He suggested we walk to a falls which was on our way home. I was pretty leery. I’m not a hiker by nature and I’m not in the best shape. But he said it was only a mile and we should try it. (This falls into the ‘try it, you’ll like it’ category.)

I wasn’t wild about the idea, but even I can walk a mile so why not give it a try I thought. Or rather didn’t think.  We had stopped by a craft store before the falls and I decided to buy a walking stick, like a staff.  I asked Nick what he thought and his first comment was a whispered, “I think that would bruise.”

After I made sure he knew the only thing I wanted it used for we headed to the falls. And like the fool I now know I am I followed my thin, agile husband down the path– and into hell. It wasn’t steep in the way of having to climb or anything, but we were definitely going down hill. The staff was a true lifesaver as some of the gravel was loose and it kept me from falling several times. It was when we came to the first set of stairs that I began to have serious misgivings. I don’t like regular stairs and as you can see these weren’t the best.

The path itself was well worn, but as you can see here there were a few toe catchers – and coming out I wasn’t lifting my feet well.

I also have a fear of small bridges, yeah – this was one of them.

We finally arrived at the falls. It took us about an hour. Pretty, sure, but certainly not worth the walk – that’s my body you see stretched out on the bridge bench. It was about this time as I was trying to remain conscience that it occurred to me we were going to have to walk out again.

Shit. We started. We hadn’t brought any water of course, we hadn’t thought that far ahead. But I had little choice. I had to get out and the only way out was to walk. So I did. But it was so steep going back up I could only do about twenty steps at a time and then I had to rest. My breathing sounded like a freight train.  We were about half way back when I couldn’t go any farther. We came to a small narrow bench. I needed to lie down but it was too small. To hell with it – I just lay down in the dirt. I had to rest. I think that was when Nick got a little worried – he wasn’t the only one.

Slowly, but surely we did make it out. Getting back to the car, to water was like heaven itself and after drinking some I pretty much passed out and don’t remember anything else for a while.

You know the rest of the story – the rest of the week was great. Last Saturday we went out with friends and we told them the story of the hike. Our friend turned to Nick and said, “You mean you finally got her down by that pretty waterfall and you didn’t even get lucky?”

“Damn right he got lucky,” I told them. “I didn’t beat him to death with the walking stick!”

We did it, walked to the falls and made it back – but it’s the last hike I take where I can’t see the finish line from where I start!