During my six week trip to the States, where I gorged myself on all of the flavors of home that I had missed so much, and used Dunkin Donuts as my personal therapist, hey, $6 a dozen is way cheaper than $200 an hour, I wasn't QUITE ready for my husband's plans for a day together.
Our oldest son would be in school for the day, and I signed our youngest up for a day back at his preschool class. It was just me and my man! He packed our bags (impressive, just one of the reasons I love him) and off we went for a little hike.
The road to get to the place we were going to hike from was a little squirrely. It was a paved road, how they got the equipment up there to pave, I don't know, but it was barely wide enough for one car. And, if we drove a little too far to the right, we'd definitely have a chance to test out the roll bar on our jeep. We arrived at the parking lot for the hikers. There was a really nice path off to the left. From what my husband told me, it led through tunnels that the Italian Army built during World War I to use in order to get through the mountians. By the way, these are not your regular mountains, these are the Dolomites, the Southern tip of the Alps. These are American mountains on steroids.
However, it was not our plan to take that route. Oh,no...not us. That route is for children...beginners. Not people in the great physical shape that we are in (or..at least were in 20 years ago). We started out on a trail that was quite steep. Let me give you a little picture of what we were up against. Turn to your left. Do you see that wall? Start walking! Oh, and don't forget to include some loose rocks, tree limbs, and narrow your wall down to about 8 inches wide with a bone-breaking fall to your side. Then, for good measure, put prickly plants on the ground on both sides of the trail so that when you reach down to help steady yourself as you climb that wall, you get mini thorns in your hands. Sounds fun, right?
The next part added some rock climbing, now we're talking! Followed by a hike along a beautiful ridge. The views were spectactular. And the temperature drop was refreshing after our little hike. We could see for miles. After 2 1/2 hours of hiking and climbing, we came to the part where our bags came in handy. It turns out he hadn't packed us a picnic lunch. No wine and cheese. Nope. It was filled with climbing gear. A harness, gloves, hat, and some ropes and things called lobster claws. We adorned ourselves with our gear and climbed another section of rock. The gear was to save us if we happened to lose our stepping or grip, since we were about 200 feet up on the side of a mountain. As we rounded a corner, we came to a ladder. It was bolted into the side of another peak and led to another area of climbing. Seriously? We're going higher? I'm not afraid of heights. I'm not even afraid of falling from heights. But I was a little nervous climbing up a ladder that was 3000ft above sea level. And MAN, was it chilly. It wasn't refreshingly cold. It was, "where's my sweater and gloves" cold. And when you're climbing a ladder that far off the ground, (yes mom, I was attached to the ladder with my harness), you don't want your fingers to be numb.
From there, it was a lot more of the same. Up, up, up...over, over, over. By this point, my legs are hurting me, and my rear end is questioning whether all of those donuts were really worth it. We hit a point called the "saddle". It's this area where you climb (or slide...you choose) down a football field embackment of rocks and then get to climb back up a field of rocks on the other side. It was at this point that the Angels of mercy shined upon me, and my dear husband asked if we should hike over to the trail instead of heading back up hill. Maybe it wasn't the Angels of mercy. Maybe he just saw that I was exhausted, or maybe "Are you kidding me?" had come out of my mouth just one too many times. Any way around it, I chose door number one. It's trail time!
This is where we learned that not many people take the easy way out. We know this because a path sort of started to lead us over to the main trail, but then, it disappeared. What do we do? Do we turn back? We could see the main trail in the distance. We knew where we needed to head. My boyfriend Bear Gryls (star of Man vs. Wild, and only I know he's my boyfriend...he's not yet aware), taught me some important navigation skills, so I said "Let's move on." Stupid girl. Stupid, stupid girl. Where were the Discovery Channel guys who plan Bear's trips out before he takes them? The first part wasn't bad...just more hiking. No trail, but nothing major to get over. And then there were the rocks. Oh...and the snake. Yes, a snake. Beings I don't speak much Italian, I couldn't ask it if it was friend or foe, so I just figured it was foe and changed my path. But, once you see one snake, you wonder how many of it's friends are around. Add snake-anxiety to the fun! We finally saw the trail just below us. The only thing in our way was 10 feet of pine trees. And no, not pine trees where you can walk beneath the branches and be impressed by their beauty. These were pine trees that had been knocked down over time and were growing along the ground. We had to climb over and through the piney maze to get to the trail. Have you ever had a pine branch hit you in the face? I have. Not fun.
But we made it. We reached the trail and headed back on the hour and a half walk back to our car. Was it worth it, definitely. Will I do it again, you betcha. Will I forego the donuts...better believe it.
Ciao, ciao for now!
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