Mother Mary’s Head
It’s way past midnight and I’m not tired. 32 ounces of Monster energy does a number on the mind and body, none of which is good for it i’m sure. That stuff tastes like I’m drinking candy. I had a really cool last few days. Mother’s Day was spent with mom, which was nice. It’s always good to be home for a few days. The day after Mothers Day I went up to a really cool peak in the San Jacinto Mountains called Lily Rock and looked out over a cloud-ocean covering the Inland Empire all the way until the faded horizon a hundred miles west. It was a nice little hike and a beautiful day for it. I thought of something on the way down though. Climbing a mountain can be really boring and sometimes just a mundane chore. Trails switching back and forth, slowly winding around rocks, each step defined clearly with an easy to follow well traveled path are monotonous even to talk about. We didn’t do that at all this time, or at least it didn’t feel like it. It was difficult, i’ll be the first to admit. I haven’t hiked or done much straining physical activity in a while so I’m pretty simply out of shape, but it was a fun hike at the same time. My friend Max and I started walking up the mountain and before long I realized we were going through terrain that hadn’t been traveled through frequently. It was clearly a trail but not a trail marked with two lines of equally sized rocks, conveniently placed beside a path. A few times, max and I felt like the path could have lead one way or another and we would have several choices to make about how to get to the top. One way would lead to the summit and the others would lead to being lost and stranded in the woods. If we were lucky we could run into Les Stroud, if not, then probably certain death because of or lack of ability to survive in the wilderness of Idyllwild.
Fortunately we found our way to the breezy summit, took some pictures and ate lunch. At about 1 o’clock we decided it was time to head back. I was getting restless and tempted to jump from things that no one should jump from. The decent was almost the coolest part. If anyone knows me really well, you know that one of my favorite things to do is leap off of things. I love boulder hopping and someday I’m sure that I’m going to hurt myself doing it. It’s so much fun and it’s a lot more interesting when there’s icy snow and slippery rocks all around. One wrong step could have meant, well it could have not felt great. But we made it down safely and i can now say I’ve climbed up the rock that looks like Mary the mother of Jesus from our view of it at my mom’s house. I’m now looking forward to, and preparing both physically and mentally for my next big climbing adventure… Mount Whitney in July; something a little bit less tame than Monday’s day hike to the top of Mary’s head. I’m probably not ready yet.
