You know when you climb a mountain, and they say the weather gets very bad there very fast? They’re not kidding! I learned that the hard way today. One of the things I really wanted to do at the Sommerschule was climb to Kachina Peak, so I found a friend (Demetria) to go with me, although we couldn’t find anyone else today, we thought it would be fun to go at our own pace. And it was–the hike is beautiful! We went slowly, ate wild strawberries, and sang Beatles songs. Wild strawberries, by the way, are so much better than our “normal” genetically engineered kind, but much smaller. Things were going really well; we managed to get farther than the last group did, until the trail ended. At the end of the trail, you have to climb up the rest of the way through a really steep mountainside full of rocks…just tons and tons of rocks. Not bad, just time consuming. We actually thought it was really fun not to take a trail for once.
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Then, about halfway up that particular part of the mountain, we thought we felt a little rain. No big deal, no thunder yet. Except it wasn’t rain, it was hail. What on earth do you do when you’re at the top of a mountain and it starts hailing? Hiding seemed like the best option. We found a big rock that had a few crevices near the ground, big enough to hide under. Laying under the rock, I could see that it was cracked and had several other rocks wedged together, held in one piece by pressure. There was a steep, smooth rock under me so that I had to find something to hold onto or fall out from under the rock. We didn’t know how bad the hail would get, and fortunately although there was a lot of hail, it was fairly small and stopped within 5 minutes. That was a relief! Since it was sunny, we decided to keep going. It wasn’t exactly a day full of good decisions. But we could see the top, and I’m stubborn to the point of stupidity at times. Within 10 minutes we could hear thunder, and it was really close. We looked for a good route down (good decision) and found that it’s worse leaving; very steep with lots of loose rocks. I looked over at the mountain next to us and suddenly lightning hit the top, and I realized that there’s nothing between us and those storm clouds. We were literally at the top of a mountain. It was really quite terrifying to realize that there was absolutely nothing between us and a bolt of lighting, and I just hoped it wouldn’t strike anywhere close to us. It was so slow going down the mountain too–we didn’t want to fall and break something (our necks, for example) but we didn’t really like the idea of being struck by lightning either. It hit close by twice; once, just above and to the left of us about 100 yards away. As we climbed down the thunder kept getting louder and louder, and the air felt like it was full of static. We practically ran all the way down that mountain, scared to death. Obviously you know the end of the story–I’m writing this, so I’m ok. Kathy picked us up at the Bavarian Inn. Must have been some phone call! “Hi Caitlin, where are you?” “I’m on a mountain with thunder and lighting and…I don’t know?” And they were worried about bears! I guess nature just does not want me hiking to Kachina peak.
Thought of the day: why do they put green chilies on everything in New Mexico? I’m tired.