Toll Road

 

Abandon Hope

 

All ye ankles

 

who Enter

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The last eight miles are a grueling beatdown.  It is humbling, harsh and hedonistic.  For those in shape and normally going out and beating themselves and their bodies, this hike is going to be your cup of tea.  For those of us who hold down fifty plus hours a week jobs and talk more about getting in shape than trying to actually get into shape, its a smackdown.  I did Basic Training at Fort Leonard Wood, MO and AIT at Fort Knox, KY.  This hike was as hard as any hike I did at either of those stations. 

The river is shallow and swift, just enough to push your foot off a slippery river rock and slide until your ankle slams into the side of a large river rock.  Your feet, ankles and knees are pretty hashed by the time you finish this hike.

In stark contrast to the steady detioration of your stamina, injuries and motivation is the growing beauty of the hike.  They are directly inveresly proportionate to each other.  Marty took the worst of it by falling into the cold water and having to change out her clothes in order to stay warm.  By about the thirteenth mile, we ran into our first human beings coming up the river from Temple of Sinawava.  This raised our hopes until we heard we had another three miles to go.

I remember stopping with two miles left to go, being irritated because Marty and John were wanting to take longer and more frequent breaks.  I think at some point I reminded them that we didn't really want to be in the canyon in the dark since none of us had head lamps, nor was there any shore to sit on to get a rest.  I think it was quite natural for everyone to want to rest for a while, but I didn't want to finish out the hike in the dark.  I remembered on that stop that I had a bag of gorp that I had forgotten about.  It was one of those times when a bunch of people sit around snorting food down our throats as fast as we could and still manage to say "I think this is the best food I have ever eaten" a few times.  Never had peanuts, raisins and M&M's tasted so delicious.

 

 

We finished out the hike at the Temple of Sinawava where we met up with Linda and Tanis.  I was limping pretty badly and the other two were quiet with exhaustion.  My hips and knees were killing me.  The shuttle ride home was a silent journey and reflection on what we had just done.