Standing alone my senses reeled
Let me see, how was my weekend. Friday I had the day off, so I drove around for a bit, trying to find out where the trail starts to climb the mountain. (Montaigne Sainte Victoire) After a bit of me doing circles (I wasn't lost, I knew where I was...just wasn't where I wanted to be!), stopping at a little town called Tholonet; I managed to get back to Aix on the opposite side of town and then found the right road up the back side of the mountain. Then, all by blind luck, I found the little road that went to the dam and the start of all the trails. So I wandered around some of the forest service roads, taking pictures of the mountain and the scenery. That took about 2.5 hours of the day, all in 18C sunny weather. Not bad for January. =)
Saturday, I got a phone call from Jerome, asking if I wanted to hike to the top of the mountain with Bo, Bo's friend Shawn and himself. I had said the day before that I was going to wait a bit to get in better shape, but I also wasn't going to miss a chance to go. So we drove up there, and started hiking a bit later in the day than we should have. This was bad, but it was also very good.
The climb started off on the service roads again, but my legs were NOT happy about having to work two days in a row. I had horrible cramps and pain in my calves and around my shins. Jerome stayed with me and I stretched and stretched until they started to loosen up a bit. The first real tough part was a scramble using hands and feet up a fairly steep face. Poor Shawn is afraid of heights, and she had a hard time with this part. I was just hurting and my cardio was also complaining at me. But we made that part, and for the next bit it was a fairly easy go.
Soon though, we started to climb again, and although we stopped often to catch out breath, I was hurting. Jerome got a ways ahead of us, Bo stayed with Shawn since she was struggling too, and I was in the back, gasping and ready to collapse. Eventually though, through a lot of stubbornness on my part, I made it to the little monastery at the top of the mountain.
What a view! Those monks really know how to pick real estate!
A short hike after that was the big cross on the top. The base of the cross is 1010m up, and we had covered about 5 or 6 km (maybe more) to get there. It was worth every stab of pain, every gasp, every pounding heart beat in my chest. What a view. The Sun was getting lower, and with all the pollution, the light was turning golden.
On the way down (which I was nearly running because it is down, easy part), the Sun kept sinking, making the colour of the rocks change, and the sky became very golden in colour. We stopped a little ways down to watch a para-glider floating along on the updraft's from the mountain. I got a couple of amazing shots of him, with the light just perfect.
But we couldn't stay there long,the Sun was just about below the horizon, and we were barely a third of the way. At about two thirds of the way down, we watched the Sun disappear and we made haste in the growing twilight. In the end, we made the hard part in some light, and followed the service roads through near dark...other than the near full moon and the blood red sky for light. I should have stopped and taken a photo of the sunset through the trees. Blood red sky with black trees. It was very beautiful, as well as a bit creepy looking.
Sunday, well I stayed home and gave the legs a break. The calves are a bit stiff still, but not bad. Only time that they hurt me today was when I tried to jump up and look into the engine intake for debris.
I also got something else today to make my life a bit nice. A brace for my sore arm. Jerome went with me to the pharmacy, and after three tries to explain to the lady what I wanted, I got just the perfect thing. Now, I have support for the arm (still hurts, but at least I am not doing more damage) so that it can start healing itself.
BTW, there are a bunch of new photos on my Flickr page, go check them out!
Saturday, I got a phone call from Jerome, asking if I wanted to hike to the top of the mountain with Bo, Bo's friend Shawn and himself. I had said the day before that I was going to wait a bit to get in better shape, but I also wasn't going to miss a chance to go. So we drove up there, and started hiking a bit later in the day than we should have. This was bad, but it was also very good.
The climb started off on the service roads again, but my legs were NOT happy about having to work two days in a row. I had horrible cramps and pain in my calves and around my shins. Jerome stayed with me and I stretched and stretched until they started to loosen up a bit. The first real tough part was a scramble using hands and feet up a fairly steep face. Poor Shawn is afraid of heights, and she had a hard time with this part. I was just hurting and my cardio was also complaining at me. But we made that part, and for the next bit it was a fairly easy go.
Soon though, we started to climb again, and although we stopped often to catch out breath, I was hurting. Jerome got a ways ahead of us, Bo stayed with Shawn since she was struggling too, and I was in the back, gasping and ready to collapse. Eventually though, through a lot of stubbornness on my part, I made it to the little monastery at the top of the mountain.
What a view! Those monks really know how to pick real estate!
A short hike after that was the big cross on the top. The base of the cross is 1010m up, and we had covered about 5 or 6 km (maybe more) to get there. It was worth every stab of pain, every gasp, every pounding heart beat in my chest. What a view. The Sun was getting lower, and with all the pollution, the light was turning golden.
On the way down (which I was nearly running because it is down, easy part), the Sun kept sinking, making the colour of the rocks change, and the sky became very golden in colour. We stopped a little ways down to watch a para-glider floating along on the updraft's from the mountain. I got a couple of amazing shots of him, with the light just perfect.
But we couldn't stay there long,the Sun was just about below the horizon, and we were barely a third of the way. At about two thirds of the way down, we watched the Sun disappear and we made haste in the growing twilight. In the end, we made the hard part in some light, and followed the service roads through near dark...other than the near full moon and the blood red sky for light. I should have stopped and taken a photo of the sunset through the trees. Blood red sky with black trees. It was very beautiful, as well as a bit creepy looking.
Sunday, well I stayed home and gave the legs a break. The calves are a bit stiff still, but not bad. Only time that they hurt me today was when I tried to jump up and look into the engine intake for debris.
I also got something else today to make my life a bit nice. A brace for my sore arm. Jerome went with me to the pharmacy, and after three tries to explain to the lady what I wanted, I got just the perfect thing. Now, I have support for the arm (still hurts, but at least I am not doing more damage) so that it can start healing itself.
BTW, there are a bunch of new photos on my Flickr page, go check them out!
posted by Travelcedric at 09:23
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home