Ch.16 cont.
Lee gathered
the packs containing the climbing equipment, grabbed a small cooler pack with
water , checked the equipment and was soon ready to pull out. Other hikers
apparently bent on doing the same thing were parked there too. Lee brandished
what looked like a keyless entry and punched it and sure enough the lights
flashed and it made the sound of door locks , but I knew by looking at the
doors they were not locked . Lee said kind a
cute huh.
I laughed when I realized
it was just a recording and that doors were not really locked, but it
“Wow what are
they going to think of next?” I asked.
Ann added,” I
don’t know,but you can sure bet Lee will buy it first.” Everyone laughed at that and Ann adjusted the
straw cowboy hat to cover her eyes as she lowered the brim. She had her pack on
and Lee was ready and I had found me a stick to lean on and we took off down
the trail to the overlook area. We had arrived at mid-day and it was hot with
the sun shining down but a cool breeze could be felt as we neared the edge of
the rock cliffs overlooking the valley below. Looking out over the edge of
the craggy rock shelf , below that was the trees growing up the slope that
we could see were mature older trees, and one could estimate it had to be between 60 foot of cliff plus below
that another 60 feet of trees to the bottom . Sure would hate to slip off this
trail I thought as we walked along. They were taking their time and I really don’t
know why they insisted on having me come along. I was just slowing them down
and I carried no pack and was lucky enough to just get myself moving. But for whatever
reason they wanted me to tag along , I was glad to get away and join them on
this little day trip adventure.
Lee was a lucky
man I thought as Ann was in front of me and to tell you the truth, I like Lee would have followed her anywhere.
for 51 years old she still had not only a nice butt , she also had great legs
to go with it . Age had treated her very kindly. She looked very chic in her
short shorts, hiking boots and loose floppy denim shirt and cowboy hat and back
pack and could have easily posed for a magazine cover. I thought to myself that
I wished I could find that sort of a woman myself, but for me time was running
out, and a woman with a walker and a couple of tennis balls adorning the feet
of the walker, just wasn’t the same. Ann always threatened to hook me up with
her girlfriends, but even they paled in comparison to her. She set the standard
way to high. Lee didn’t know how lucky
he as. Of course I jumped well as good as I could at the chance of going along
on this short trip to test the equipment and to see how far out of shape they
were to climb at this altitude.
I wasn’t planning
on climbing but instead I would stay on top of the plateau and would keep in
touch by hand held radio if something went wrong or they needed help. Climbing wise
there was plenty of hand holds and solid rock though weathered, one could see
what you were grabbing ahold of while
climbing. It was steep, of course a fall of over 120 feet will kill you so all
precautions needed to be taken. Also Lee and Ann just planned on rappelling
down the slope and using the ascenders only if they needed the help to get back
up. I was going to sit on top and assist if needed and watch for wear on the
rope.
All the
equipment was new with only a couple of tree climbs to their credit but already
Lee was getting the hang of climbing. You could see the look in his weathered
face, that this agreed with him as he methodically
went over everything assuring not only his safety but Ann’s as well. We came to
a point in the trail where the trail ducked behind some large rocks to again
follow the craggy features of the cliff, then lee said from behind .
“Let’s take a
break here”
I didn’t need to
be told twice and immediately found me a rock to sit on in the shade of an old
weathered tree that looked like it had been sand blasted but still it showed
some shade under which I planted myself. Ann produced a water from the ice pack
in Lee’s backpack and offered me one as she took another for herself and one
for Lee. We sat down to survey the view it was gorgeous as it must have been
5-6 miles across a steep valley at that point. The heat was beginning to waft
into our view distorting images over distances as everything blurred in the
distance. Lee stood up and walked close to the edge and leaned over and looked
at the face of the cliff an said.
“ This will do
fine , we are going over here Ann, does that sound good?”
“Well it did till
you said that, now faced with the reality of hurling myself over the edge into the
unknown , it has me a little nervous to say the least. “
“But dear this is
what we have been waiting for a real chance to try out our equipment. So far It
has all been practice but now we see if we are really up to it. “
“Sounds good in
theory but I am still scared shitless in practice.” she said and we all laughed at that.
Lee started to
unpack his equipment and lay it out, after throwing the climbing lines over the
side and securing them to a huge boulder , he installed chaff guards on his
lines to protect them from being cut by rock as they climbed the face of the cliff.
Lee said I doubt
if this is going to have much effect on our conditioning but it is making an
excellent chance to try out our equipment before going on our trip.
Soon Lee was all
tied in to his harness he had just put on and Ann was having some trouble
getting a few of her straps to fit comfortably over her clothes. Lee helped her
and soon she was ready to click into the climbing line that lee was on. A second
line was thrown and would not be used except in case of an emergency. We checked
the radio and Lee and Ann donned their headgear
with Ann losing her cowboy hat to be replaced with a climbing helmet complete
with a hands free 2 way radio. Finally they were ready to go over the edge . Lee
went first turning his back to the overhang and lowering himself with his
safety eye attached to his harness. He
walked backward testing and tensioning the rope and soon he was out over the edge
Ann followed soon after above him but was having a problem relaxing. Soon her confidence in the rope increased then
she had a handle on lowering herself as
soon the both of them were out of sight from me.
Lee laughed as his
voice crackled over the two-way to me.” This is great , and I think Ann likes
it too. “
Her voice could be
heard as she said into the mike” I am
glad you are below me that way if I do shit myself you get all you deserve for
dragging me up here. But it is great as long as I don’t look down. “
Lee had advanced himself further down the rope and was
just above the tree tops and had tied off on the other line as he was waiting
on Ann to catch up before descending all the way to the ground.
Ann was going slowly, but she was steady in her attempt to
each the forest floor below.
I just sat up there
and watched their ropes and enjoyed the view.
I took the opportunity to light up a joint I had brought along and
leaned back in the shade and sipped on my water and just drifted away while e
listening to them chatter over the radios. It took them a half hour to descend
but surely it was going to take longer to climb back up as I heard them down on
the ground talking about looking around some before heading back up. Lee complained
of the beer bottles and trash that was hurled over the edge and could be seen littering
the base of the cliff from, parties before up above.
This made me think
of a story about Mt. Everest where all these climbers go every season and
apparently haven’t been taking back all they bring including bodies. Trash was
becoming a big problem on the world’s tallest mountain as people with whom
money was no object seemingly care less about preserving Everest’s raw beauty,
and just dump all kinds of supplies and trash in whatever crevasse or cranny
they can rather than carry it out. And climbers who die are usually buried on
the mountain but become unearthed in no time leaving skeletons exposed to the
elements. If they were found, some
remain in snow banks for years till they are finally exposed. But rarely are
they hauled by other climbers back to the base of the mountain. Imagine that would
be a grim reminder to the harshness of the region when seeing a half exposed
corpse along a mountain path on your journey to reach the top of the world. The
analogy of bodies left behind on your way to the top is reminiscent of man’s
struggle to one up his fellow man.
The radio
crackled again and Ann and Lee was ready to ascend, as again the lines went taut as their weight
was now on the line. This was a slow process as lee let Ann go first and
instructions on where to grab and directions to climb were relayed to Ann from Lee over the headset but soon I saw Ann’s
smiling face as she grimaced her way up over the edge of the cliff . She was
happy to be back on top and no worse for the wear except a scraped knee and
some blood showing from where she banged into the cliff one time. Lee soon
hauled his long body up as he leaned back and putting pressure on his feet
walked up the remaining part of the slope as if he was an expert climber.
Ann threw her arms around him and exclaimed. “That
was almost better than sex. But just like sex I’m tired let’s get something to
eat.” I said sure by that time I had amassed a whole bunch of munchies and needed
to fill that void in my stomach. We hurried and gathered the equipment and donned the packs and headed to the van . Lee
hit his fake remote then laughed as we all piled into the van as it was making
its lock noises and lights a flashing. . We were safely in the motel by seven that night and soon found us a place to eat.
Again the next day we did the same thing only Lee
brought along garbage bags. Even though they didn't go over the edge at the
same spot, there was still plenty of trash to be found at the base of the cliff.
Lee thought now if all these beer bottles were aluminum cans I wonder how many
would be here. As tight ass as some beer drinkers are I am sure someone would have
been up here gathering up cans to recycle. . Humans can’t live with them and
you sure as hell can live without them except Ann lee thought. She rocked his world.
The weekend was
great and the van did great and surprisingly no one stole the van, a testament
to the new security system Lee laughed so much about. I was glad to be home and again sad to
see them go but knew it would not be long before once again Lee and Ann would
be back to take me on a another adventure. We said our goodbyes and soon they were
gone as once again I was left to myself.
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