Casualties

Climbing to the top of Picacho Peak was a once in a lifetime experience… because I’m too terrified to ever do it again.

When the ranger said the hike was rated difficult, he didn’t mention I’d be clinging to a cliff edge with a metal cable slicing into my palm and rocks sliding from under my feet. I’m not a heights guy, and I’m not all that much of a thrill-seeker, so this was enough to get my heart racing… and love every minute of it.

Fortunately, my concerns that going down the peak would be scarier than going up were unnecessary. The trip down was slow and methodical, but not as treacherous as I expected. We took the Sunset Trail back to our site… nice ambling path along the slope that has greened up so much in the last few weeks. Gorgeous.

Casualty Report

Sadly, we have a few casualties to report… First, I sliced open my hand while climbing to the top. It’s nothing serious… in fact it was just deep enough to draw blood. Pulling out the spikes from the cactus I stepped into was much more painful… the little ones covered in spines have these barbs on them that sink beneath your skin and won’t let go.

Casualty number two was my shoes. My mom and dad got me that pair three years ago, and today’s hike really took it out of them.

Casualty number three was Peppa’s arm. It broke when we went to the scary post office yesterday. Fortunately, Peppa is ceramic and a bit of super glue should have her back to hula-ing in no time.