The Numbers Keep Getting Higher

First of all, there's my age, which rolled over to 40 on the giant odometer of life today. Fortunately, I'm too busy to wallow in self-pity today. Maybe I'll indulge over the weekend. This pill was somewhat sweetened by cards from Sara and Nathan, each signed in their best handwriting; and I got an iPod, which is very cool! I won't be dependent on whatever music is issuing from various aerobics classes when I'm running at the rec center. I took a quick look at it this morning, and it seems pretty self-explanatory. Hopefully, I can load it up with tunes this weekend. I might have to do that instead of whining about my age and contemplating an eye-job.

The other large number causing me some concern today is 800, which is related to our upcoming climb of King's Peak. Si did a little research, and downloaded some info about the hike and the climb. We're planning to hike in about 10 miles the first day, spend the second day getting to the top of the Peak and back down, then hiking out on the third day. He read aloud to me while I cooked supper. "Shady trail....gradual elevation gain...great scenery...excellent camping choices..." Sounds good. I ask him about how many thousand feet of vertical we need to gain. "From trail-head to peak, 5,000 feet." No big deal, spread out over what looks like about 15 miles. It isn't really nasty until it's 1,000 feet of vertical or more per mile. And of course, the big elevation gain (the grind) won't be until the second day. "No technical climbing required...but the last segment of the climb is talus and boulder field." What? Talus? Boulders?Oh, ick. For those of you who don't hang out much in the mountains, "talus" is that loose, flat, broken s*** that slides out from under your feet, and we have a lot of moutains in Utah that are talus-topped. Since I like staying on my feet, I don't love talus/boulder scrambles. I glanced over Si's shoulder for a second. "Oh, well...that's only the last 800 feet. I can do it." "Actually, that 800 feet is the vertical that we gain in the scramble. It's actually about .8 of a mile long. " Oooooh. Well, all right... That's...a lot of talus. I better kick my workouts up a notch. The iPod arrived just in time.