On the first day of vacation we headed out to Waldo Canyon trail. I’m fairly good at walking but the SO kept telling me that this was a rough hike. He kept saying that it was higher altitude so if I got winded let him know so we could rest. The trail starts with a huge climb up stairs out of the parking lot. Great. I had visions of dying on the trail but that fear was kept under control by my more pressing fear of a potential rattlesnake sighting. I let the SO walk first.
After you get to the top of the stairs the trail is fairly simple. The SO kept stopping to see if I was ok. I wasn’t winded at all but he was. In typical male fashion though each stop was to make sure that I was ok. Finally he looked at me and said, “You aren’t even breathing hard.” It was an accusation. I figured it wasn’t the time to offer to pant so he felt better.
It is a 3 mile trail. He was talking about his knee hurting. I suggested that the smart thing to do would be to turn back. He ignored this sound medical advice until we reached the loop part of the trail. Then he waved his hand and said airily, “It just comes back here anyway so let’s turn back.”
On the way back we found his favorite side trail. It goes to this huge flat top rock.
We laid out on this for a while and I got fried. I had SPF 15 on but since I tan though SPF 50 I knew I was going to be in trouble. But it was a great rock. I did some grounding exercises while I was lying there. It felt like I was completely anchored to that rock through my root chakra. I wasn’t sure I was going to be able to get up until I really concentrated on letting the grounding go.
This is the view of the rock area from the trail on the way back to the car.
Or as he put it, “A picture so I can show your mother where you would have died when you fell off the rock because you insisted on standing on the edge for a picture.” I did point out that I would have only fallen about 2 feet before another huge rock broke my fall. Some people are just too cautious….
