Memorial Day Weekend (Mungo Version)

What a clever way of telling someone the sex of the baby! I like that. (Didn't know they had pink m&m's. Man, if I tried something like that, the plan would back fire. I'd end up eating some on the way to the meeting with the prospective paternals and snack away too deeply into the prodominate color.)

So, Double O couldn't go hiking today after all. He had to work at his second job. The next common day off he has is Friday so we decided to do the hike then. The two times I talked to him on the phone today were casual and off-the-cuff. It was weird, as if there actually wasn't a 6 month sevring of ties and good feelings.

But what a bummer for MeMungo. I had my heart set on a good ass-kicking climb. I already had my bag together for a day hike so I went out anyway looking for a nice easy trail to occupy the sun shiney afternoon. I thought Bird Creek (the REAL Bird Creek, not the one we were calling Bird Creek [which is actually called Penguin Creek]) would be a nice hike in the sun and in the shade of the brand new leaves (all leaves budded and bloomed completely, begining stages to the final stages LAST WEEK!). BUT! I couldn't keep my plans to the mediocre... I altered course and ended up hiking Bird Ridge. Which is a mountain. 3,505 ft. Now, that's ALL climbing because you start at sea-level. A lot of mountains you may have heard of in Colorado or where ever may sound taller when you say 9,000 feet, but when you start at 5 or 7 thousand feet, you're really not doing a whole lot more than what I did today. Except for maybe encountering more snow and harsher weather. I'm not saying that I'm a stud, I'm just saying that 35-hundred feet along the Turnagain Arm ain't no cake walk. One of my old blisters (from hiking Dark Globe 5 days ago) opened up and started bleeding. Since I was origonally just planning on doing the easy hike, I wore my Merrel hiking SANDALS. The sandles were fine on the way up (except for the brief encounters with the snow) but on the way down... NOT APPROPRIATE FOOTWEAR for downhill or sidehill action! I rolled my ankles countless times upon the 'gradient release' and fell once. The fall only gave me some minor scratches, but it was a big enough shock to my left knee and left ankle that I wanted to just stop. I said outloud, "Get up and move, and get up and move NOW," because I thought if I just stayed there, I would seize up and get stuck. I eventually made it down and I haven't been this tired in a while. Reason? Other than the mountain itself and the 3,200 foot climb 5 short days ago, I have also recently been on a 15 mile bike ride, a 25 mile bike ride, and a 1.5 mile run accompanied with a 3 mile walk. I need to cool it until Friday or there is no way on God's Gray Earth that I will ever ever make it with Double O.

Thank God I quit smoke though. Wooo wee! It would have been a real bitch of a time with a pair of heavy lungs.

Great view from up there. Took a 360 degree panorama series of pictures. I'm going to pin them up in the office and label all of the 25 mountains (or so) visable from the peak.

Peace and Love,
Mungo

Song of the day: "There is a peak you reach." - Badly Drawn Boy