More mountain details

I was too exhausted last night by the time I got to town to include all I wanted to. My right neck/shoulder region was really painful. At first I thought it was a "Charlie-horse," but when it persisted, I figured I pulled a muscle when I fell. Took ibuprofen and made it through. Fine today.

Here are a couple of video clips I took, just in case I didn't survive the trip, to leave for posterity. Make no mistake, I really believed I would survive, but one can never know at my age

This first one was taken when I was almost to the summit. Having had no mirror, I see I still had a smudge of blood on my chin. Gross!

Note: To play the videos it seems you have to click on the little arrow in the lower left corner, not the big one in the center until it takes you to Flickr.



The next one wasn't too concerning since I had taken plenty of extra water along.



I hadn't lain down the whole trip because, although I needed the rest, it's too hard to get back up. Well, once I fell and was already down, I stayed there resting for awhile. Also trying to find a way to bandage my finger, which was cut quite deep. Couldn't figure out a way, and it finally stopped bleeding. When I'm climbing, I'm super careful, but I was on flat ground on the ridge and dragging my tired body more than I realized. Tripped over a rock that was poking out of the ground, but firmly embedded. A loose pebble wouldn't have caused the fall. It wasn't my first trip of the trip, just my only fall. (In this video, notice my foot showing.)



I'm almost as good as new today. Even still, I don't think I'll ever do the summit again. My knees are the worst problem. I climbed either up or down for at least 4 hours, plus an hour of walking on relatively flat land. Relatively. 

Why? Partly to get a photo of a butterfly that I hadn't photographed at the oasis. Partly to see if I could see an Ursine Giant-Skipper, and partly because it's heavenly up there. And partly because my options are to sit in front of the TV or computer. I enjoy those things, to be sure, but not how I want to spend all the time that I'm not working at the oasis. It's about my idea of quality of life, I guess.