Am I Having Fun Yet?

Here I am at the Mailbox. But this is no ordinary mailbox. This is the mailbox at the summit of a local peak known as ... wait for it... Mailbox! I am exhausted and dripping wet from sweat, but for good reason. This is no ordinary hike. Remember Mt. Si, my last excursion into the wild? The Mt. Si trail is four miles long and rises 3150 feet in elevation. At an average 15% grade, it's a pretty good hike. It took me 1:52 to get to the top. The Mailbox trail is 2.25 miles long and rises 4000! By my math, that makes for a 34% grade! So even though the hike is half as long as Mt. Si, it's more than twice as steep. (For the mathematically-challenged among you, a 34% grade means that for every 100' you go horizontally, you go up 34.' (Actually the grade is a bit more than that because the 2.25 miles is the hypotenuse, not the horizontal leg of the triangle, but that's way too nit-pickingly complicated for this post)) It took me 2:20 to get up, and 1:40 to get down. My climbing buddy Lee smoked me totally, making it to the top in1:59. In our continued preparation for our August 15th assault on Mt. Rainier, we're talking about hiking Tiger Mountain tomorrow. It's a relatively easy hike on a good trail, but we'll be doing it with 50lb packs on our backs. Am I having fun yet?




It's a long way to the top. This shot was taken on the last leg where the trail emerges from the forest.











It's a long way down. Unfortunately, it was a foggy, dreary day (typical for this year's so-called summer), so the views from the top were less than spectacular.

Going up is hard work, but going down can be hard on the quads and the knees. Surprisingly enough I'm not suffering any significant ill effects today. I am pleased that my long-abused body is hanging in there as well as it is.







I went to a podiatrist on Tuesday, fully expecting to get fitted for a set of orthotics in an attempt to fix my on-going ankle and knee problems. The Doc took some x-rays, poked around a bit and told me I didn't need orthotics. Instead, he gave me a couple of ankle braces and prescribed an NSAID (Non-Steroidal Anti-Inflammatory Drug) called Diclofen. I hate being part of the pharmaceutical-industrial establishment, but this stuff is truly magic! After taking two pills on Tuesday, I woke up on Wednesday for the first time in ages without any ankle stiffness. And as an extra added bonus, the intermittent pain in my left elbow is gone!

Hallelujah, Praise the Lord. I'm cured!