|
| | | |
| |
|
| Hiking | 9.08 Miles |
2,306 AEG |
| | Hiking | 9.08 Miles | 2 Hrs 42 Mns | | 3.41 mph |
|
|
| 2,306 ft AEG | 2 Mns Break | | |
|
|
|
| |
| Linked |
|
none
[ show ]
| no linked trail guides |
| Partners |
|
none
[ show ]
| no partners | | Call me stubborn, but if it's gonna rain on my hike day, then I'm gonna hike in the rain.
Based on historical weather data, I had some big plans on the books for this week, and then it started to rain. After assessing several resources. My best guess panned out as a 14:00ish T time, so I spent the morning in waiting. When the time came, I jumped in the truckster and headed out into the dwindling storm. The drive to the TH was pretty mild, hitting the wipers only a few times, but upon arrival at the parking lot it started to rain.
Sure that this was the tail end of it all, I decided to get started and enjoy the drizzle. The first mile was great. I was really charged up and making good time, and wouldn't you know, it really started to rain.
Well now it was cooling down quite a bit, so I decided turn next couple of miles into a run to keep warm till the storm passed. This plan worked right up to mile 2 when it really started raining. It was at this point I could no longer trust my water logged vision and had to slow it up drastically.
I carried this slow pace all the way to the King Canyon junction. From there, it just got worse as the trail was also now a stream. In spite of it all, I had made excellent time so far and had plans to conquer the final push (~1.3 miles) in record time, and I was well on the way to doing so until it started raining, I mean for real this time.
I think I was starting to loose it in the last 1/2 mile as I entered the fog. I caught myself vocalizing "MWah Ha Ha" as I day dreamed of some cheesy old horror movie with the fog monsters. Then with the last 50 yards to the peak, it was all but in the bag, and guess what? Yep, the sky opened up. As I tagged the peak, I thought, 'huh, it's really raining'.
I figured I should probably get a move on before I got wet  , so I stopped real quick to leave my smudge in the register, and headed back out into the cloud bank.
On the return trip, conditions seemed to progressively improve just as they had decayed on the way up. I was able to get a decent amount of running in, which cut my time down by quite a bit.
I learned some things today:
1) Polyester, rain and friction make for a really uncomfortable afternoon.
2) Just when you think the rain is as bad as it can get, it gets worse.
3) At some point the rain has to quit and things will get better.
4th, and most importantly, all of my life people have called me stubborn; my mother, my father my brothers and sisters, my aunts, uncles, cousins and all of the children of the aforementioned, my teachers, my guidance counselor, every woman I've ever dated, everyone who's ever known me and pretty much anyone who's ever known any of those people, not to mention some really old guy in the Philippines. Well, today I realized that they were all wrong. I'm not at all stubborn, I'm simply determined.
So, I finished 15 minutes ahead of my prior best, and as I drove away, it REEEally started to rain. |
| _____________________
| | |
|
|
|
Route Editor
Route Scout
and I just had to walk away.
). She gave me the needed motivation to get back in the race 
, but I failed to catch up and lost her 
](https://hikearizona.com/dex2/images/smilies/eusa_wall.gif "Brick wall")
