High Top

We don't get much hiking in during the week with the crew, so my toilet mate, Wendy, and I go on the weekends. A toilet mate is one you share a toilet with, but not a room. So not a roomate, but a toilet mate. Wendy and I hit it off right away when she dropped my toothbrush in the toilet and was kind enough to let me know about it right away. I've done meaner things. Actually the other day I flushed her hair tie down the toilet and it was quite hilarious. What that toilet needs is a lid.

Anyway, Wendy is a six foot tall hiking machine who can also throw a pretty good punch. I would say she inspires me to work out, but what she really does is sneak up on me when I'm laying on the couch with my kindle and hovers over me until I agree to go do some insane workout with her. Yesterday it was a run after my 4 hour nap. Little did she know I was hopped up on Sudafed, Mucinex, Tylenol and my inhaler. I sure showed her. But she dragged me out into the cold and the 20 mile per hour winds just as the sun was setting. By the way, I caught a gnarly cold from her. It's been going around on the crew since day one and it's still circulating.

Today we decided to try out the hike that the staff here at Blue Ridge recommended, High Top. We were getting bored with High Windy (they're really creative out here) and needed something a little steeper. A week or so ago, we were talking to the staff about the trails and they mentioned that high top was a good challenging one. Even mentioned there were a few "scrambles" in there. One thing I've noticed in this job is that the lay person's steep hike is usually nothing in comparison to what we deal with everyday. Your average discomfort is our leisure day. So we figured the hike would be challenging but no big deal.

Wendy hiked in front of me with a chainsaw on top of her shoulders. I carried a hoe (haha...yeah, lead hoe) but outside of that we both had gear weighing about 40 lbs on our backs. We laughed when we saw the sign at the beginning of the trail: Warning- Steep and dangerous rocks ahead. Use at your own risk. We were amused. We were less amused when the trail really did get steep and we were pulling on tree roots to pull us up and over the rock faces of the ridgeline. We agreed that it would be easier on the way back to hike the ridgeline out to High Windy and walk the less steep trail back. We scrambled over icy rock ledges and crawled over downed trees and fell into little holes covered innocently by bunches of leaves. We laughed because it really was not funny...but it was at the same time.

It was around this time that we A) wished we had brought a camera and B) wished we had told some one where we would be hiking so that they would know where to look when we didn't make it home. That just made it funnier. If you can't laugh at yourself, what can you laugh at?

After crawling and climbing for an hour, we made it to the top. The views were magnificent and there was a nice flat spot on top to sit in the sun. It was freezing by the way, but at least the sun felt nice. We decided it was finally time to head over to High Windy and make our way down. I fell in behind Wendy and didn't think much of the curse words that came out of her mouth when we rounded the corner. After our climb up, we could handle anything. I walked around her and looked out towards High Windy and got it right away. We would have to hike way down into the valley and then way back up the next mountain just to get to where we could start our descent back towards home.

It was then that I felt a severe loss of hope. Either way was going to be long and painful, but neither of us could fathom heading in an upward direction again. The only other choice was to scurry down the steep rocky slope that we came up. I suggested we use our radios to call for a helicopter. Wendy said we could tell them they could either pick up two healthy girls at the top or two broken girls at the bottom. We laughed, trying to cover up the foreboding we both felt as we walked towards the trail back down High Top. The wind howled around us as we carefully shuffled down rock cliffs and trails of tree roots. At one point Wendy had a cliffhanger moment where she clung to a rock with one hand, the chainsaw with the other and tried desperately to figure out a way down. I offered to hold the saw while she descended but she would have none of it. The few moments that followed made me really wish I had my camera. She made it down just fine and I tossed my tool down ahead of me and shimmied down the rock.

After falling into the leave holes a few times, lowering ourselves down the rocks by tree branches and roots, we began to feel like we may make it down safely. I joked about how she was going to make us do the same thing next weekend. She said no way, the trail was way too sketchy. So I agreed, then said "So when you make us do this next weekend you're going to suggest we go without saws and tools so that we could have our hands free." She laughed and said no, we weren't going to do this next weekend. I said "So when we do, what do you owe me?" We agreed on a beer.

We just went out to Indian food where I talked the waiter through how to make me a hot whiskey and discussed the hike (rock climb) with one of the girls who missed out. Wendy said "It wasn't really that bad" and that's when I knew. We're totally doing this next weekend.