The hike looks innocent enough on a map. Pretty much a straight through, north-south 10.5 mile hike on the Powerline Trail. It starts with a low water bridge where Matt threw B over his shoulder and carried her across Minnesota-style...like a giant sassauge. I decided to take my shoes and socks off and wade through the cool, shin-deep water. Had I known what awaited my poor old Keens, I wouldn't have gone through the formalities.
B liked this matter of fact sign posted at the trailhead:
Early in the opening act, which is invariably a steep uphill climb, the quintessential beat-up Hawaiian Toyota pickup with a lift kit and monster tires went zooming by. We caught him minutes later as his "upgrade" apparently couldn't overcome the base fact that his truck was a 2WD. The next grade proved too slippery and his off-roading skills too poor for the little truck that couldn't to make it up the hill. My movie attempt failed because we were laughing so hard. So he backed down with a shit-eating grin on his face. Allowing us, also in 2WD mode and 10 minutes delayed, to pass. On to Nature!
And nature there was...orchids galore, a feral piglet crashing in the underbrush, a smashed bird of some sort, little bitty newt tadpoles, and the everpresent smell of burning papaya.
And mud...lots and lots of mud. Miles of mud, hours of mud, tons of mud. Milky mud and purple mud and red and orange swirls of mud. Grey mud, clay mud, and even mud with the mystical burnt umber coloring...that's where all of your lost Crayons went, sonny boy. Color for this fanciful trail.
Some beautiful vistas, as well.
At first blush, hiking a trail that was cut to provide access to high tension power lines seemed an odd way to commune with Mother Earth. However, we were rarely under them and when we did see the line, it was only to gasp for air and mutter something like..."holy crap, we have to scramble all the way up there in this slimy shit?"
Well, at least it didn't rain...at first. When the rains came, it was pleasantly cooling but made the trail even greasier. And the diminished trail visibility was rewarded with shoes full of colored muck and maybe a wayward tadpole or two.
Milky goodness.
For a while, we were being followed by a line of helicopters on a tour route. Given the view, it seemed reasonable.
The pilots were probably cracking to the clients in their headsets, "look at those idiots slogging through that crap...care for another bon-bon, ma'am?" They stopped buzzing us making me wonder if Hurricane Flossie had gotten up the gumption to storm up the mountainside. No such luck. More slogging. 4 hours and 20 minutes of skate-hiking. To a water tower that was running curiously low and Danika in the intrepid Vue.
Bonus: a free spa treatment for our lower legs and a pair of Kauai dirt dyed socks...
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Posted by khya | August 20, 2007 6:01 AM
Posted on August 20, 2007 06:01