the air becomes so thin and the steep climb warrents taking a breather about once every 10 minutes of climbing. the pit stops allowed for absorbing the breathtaking views. at about noon-thirty, we reached the summit of grays and soaked it in, munching on peanut butter and banana sandwiches before heading down the valley and starting up to peak torreys.
it took about another hour to get to the top of the second 14er of the day. torreys has a fantastic view as well. then comes the hike back down.
where the traverse up was a muscle and lung challenge, the walk back down is a bit of a controlled fall and you can feel it most in your joints.
the landscape gently erupts in a reverse order from which it had disappeared just a few hours before. tiny, ground-hugging mosses and small flowers get larger the further you go down. it as if they grow before your eyes and the groves get thicker and thicker, until they become fields of beauty amongst the rocks, then the streams got wider and the shrubs stood taller. into the thicket of trees and back to the trailhead, arriving back at about 4:30pm.
exhilarating, satisfying, joy.
