Adventures in being a bad fiancee

[jethrien]

It seemed like a good idea, really, it did.

I like hiking - I grew up spending a lot of time outdoors. chuckro didn't. He's not fond of exercise, and he grew up preferring to stay inside and play with his Gameboy.

But skiing is an outdoors, physical activity that had seemed daunting, too. And once I got him to try it, he ended up liking it and having a good time.

I thought hiking might be the same way, too.

Apparently, I was wrong.

I will admit that my mother was right. We should have taken the really easy trail. Mostly flat-ish, rambling through the woods for 15 or 20 minutes to a spectacular overlook, watch the hawks for a bit, go home. But we'd driven all that way, and I hadn't been on a real hike for two or three years, and I missed it. And I didn't quite remember how steep the trail out of the basin was.

So my father and I insisted that we take the full trail. Which is a really nice hike - down one side of the valley, across the valley floor, up the other side, and back along the ridge. There's about 20 minutes of steep hill, and then the ridge is all bouldering. There's also two very short stretches of actual climbing involved. My brother and I did it when we were significantly younger and shorter.

And, well, in my memory it wasn't as ambitious a trail as it is in reality.

Chuckro was happy enough on the way down and on the flat section. But miserable on the way back up and along the escarpment. Because, well, it was hard. Really pretty hard. And this was pretty much the first real hiking he'd been exposed to.

So apparently I blew it. Mom was right, I should have eased him into it. Now he doesn't believe anything we say. (For the record, it was my father who declared that we were halfway up and we'd be at the top in fifteen minutes. I said it would take twice that. I was right. But I'm afraid now our credibility is shot when it comes to predicting how much more physical exertion there will be in the near future. Thanks, Dad.) Somehow, I doubt there will be much hiking in Chuckro's future.

Oops.

Comments

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Heh. Sounds like my entire childhood, too. And I would say it's always better to start with a hill than a valley - cause if you start by going down, you've got no choice but to hike up. And if you wimp out on a mountain, you can just turn around and go back to the lodge.

I just got word that my Dad and Grandad (81 years old!) hiked Mt. Moosilauke this weekend. Or rather, my Dad ran up it before breakfast, then came back and hiked it again with his sister and father. Then he ran up another mountain before dinner.

For the record, I've attempted Moosilauke twice and never made it to the summit. My Dad is a crazy person.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

PS If you want to attempt hiking again, I know some good hikes in VT/NH - and keep in mind, I'm a wimp.

[shnayder.livejournal.com]

I just wanted to mention that Mt Moosilauke is awesome. Especially if hiked from the north via the Beaver Brook trail (a really steep mile and a half along a stream/waterfall).

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Can I come with you? And perhaps leave Chuckro in front of a nice fireplace somewhere?

[shnayder.livejournal.com]

Sure! I'm not sure it's a good idea to try in the winter though, at least by that route. I want to anyway--it'd be amazingly beautiful if the stream was all frozen. We shall see :)

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I'll volunteer to hang out in the lodge! It's the oldest log cabin in the Northeast, I think. I've spent hours there before reading while my dad and brother hiked.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

There we go. We can hang out in the lodge, perhaps watching some terrible cult tv or reading comic books, and let other people go trip over rocks in the cold.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I don't think they have a TV... Keep in mind, this is a glorified log cabin.

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

I'm up for this whole staying in the lodge idea, at least if the activity is hiking. Too bad your outdoors preferences include a strong aversion to water, though--whitewater kayaking/rafting in West Virginia is very high on the list of fun outdoorsy trips. All the beauty of nature with the fun of speed and not a whole lot of sweating.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Oh, I agree with that one, too.

Apparently we'll be needing to schedule some mass outdoors trips that involve board games for half the party.

[(Anonymous)]

Subsitute an arcane novel (especially one translated from Urdu written in the 18th century but recently rediscovered) for the terrible cult TV and add some hot chocolate and brownies, and I'm there.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

So I've heard. I'm partial to Mt. Manadnock myself.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Important note: Chuckro likes to whine, and responded to all of this by being a pain in the ass, probably not endearing him to anyone. We can all be bad fiancees here.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Important note - Chuckro made it up the mountain without having serious trouble. Needed to stop a few times, but that was fine, and he was going at a respectable pace and without real mishap. He just didn't enjoy the experience much.

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

Hmm...relatively easily speeding down a mountain vs. sweatily walking up the mountain. Decisions, decisions...

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I love the flowers,
I love the nature trails,
I love the gift shops,
I love to do my nails.
I love to drive up
Mt. Washington in my car.
Bumpersticker, bumpersticker, bumpersticker get me one.
Bumpersticker, bumpersticker, bumpersticker get me one...

*sung to the tune of "Boom-de-ada" which you won't know unless you went to my summercamp*

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Oh, I know that song. From camp, yes.

But also from this horrible video I had to watch while babysitting some kids once.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Then you know the original lyrics, right?

I love the mountains
I love the rolling hills
I love the flowers
I love the daffodils
I love the fireside
When all the lights are low
Boomdeada, boomdeada, boomdeada, boomdeay
Boomdeada, boomdeada, boomdeada, boomdeay

I just always think of the spoof version when flatlanders talk about hiking. Getting the Mt. Washington bumpersticker is the height of bad taste in NH. Though I might be tempted to try it in a rental car.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

My brother's Boy Scout troop hiked up Mt. Washington as part of a week-long backpacking trip. They were so pissed at the cars. They made a point, I think, to be offensively smelly and dirty at the tourists.

[shnayder.livejournal.com]

Hehe. I really wanted to get one of the "The driver of this car RAN up Mt Washington" stickers this summer, but decided it wasn't worth the 3 bucks :)

Mt Washington is awesome. If I wasn't so crazy busy, I'd go there this weekend--there's already several feet of snow!

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

And you managed to date katertoticus for how long? Talk about insane hiker-person.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Kate and I dated for about six months, long enough for us to catch on that there was a fundamental incompatibility there.

[tigermelp.livejournal.com]

One kind of physical exertion isn't much different than other kinds...let him know that one can lead to the other. :)

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Not with my parents there with us, it can't! Gah!

[tigermelp.livejournal.com]

No, no, not right that minute! The next time you go hiking...just the two of you...when you get home! :)

[(Anonymous)]

I really like that part about "My mother was right." Notice it appears more than once. Speaking as a mother, those are such sweet words. What were they again? Oh, yes: "My mother was right." Ahhh...

And I'm the OTHER mother.

[(Anonymous)]

You know, I was going to say the same thing, but I didn't want to gloat... anymore than I already had during the hike. But at the time, I was deriving little satisfaction from it. I was too busy steaming at my husband who had earlier argued that I just didn't have a good memory of the lack of difficulty of this trail, and it would be no problem. It was a problem. Believe me. Never mind Chuck, I'm getting too old to be climbing 30' cliffs.

[lyriendel.livejournal.com]

Ha! Sounds like the last hiking trip Michael and I took. He was *leading* a hike by MIT's outdoor club that was supposed to be "intermediate", which he assured me wasn't very difficult. The rest of the group took off ahead of us after the first 10 minutes of the hike, and we only saw them for lunch (after the fastest people had waited oh, nearly an hour for us) and again at the bottom of the mountain, after it'd gotten pretty far on toward darkness. And the only reason we made it down that fast was because I had gone into super-adrenaline mode and was no longer feeling pain for most of the way down. Oh, and the fact that the hike group that was doing the *long* hike (our hike was a subset of their hike) caught up to us and we were determined to beat them down so as not to be utterly embarrassed. We kept seeing their members just behind us and taking off faster to get away from them. Turns out they were trying to catch up to us to ask for a ride to their parking lot, and sent their fastest people to chase us. Anyway, I could barely walk for a week afterwards. We haven't been on a hike since. :)
I personally like hikes that involve flat land, pretty meadows with flowers, easy to reach waterfalls, and creeks to go rock-hopping around. Oh, and by 'hike' I mean 'wandering around a small area of a nice park'. *grin* You should take Chuck on one of those.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

Oh, and by 'hike' I mean 'wandering around a small area of a nice park'. *grin*

Yeah, see, I'm cool with that sort of thing. And that was kinda what I expected, not the steep hills and the climbing on rocks, which was part of the problem.

(I also hadn't slept especially well and wasn't snacking enough, which always makes me cranky. I suspect I'd have a better time if I knew what to expect and was prepared for it.)

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I was suspecting there was a sugar low involved in this misadventure. Hey, at least you didn't get lost or shot at. That's always something.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

We definitely didn't have enough food. I mean, we had enough food for my family, whose metabolisms are significantly slower, but not for Mr. Hummingbird.

[hyouneko.livejournal.com]

Hey now, it's not our fault that our bodies are overactive at the thought of sugar being in the blood. Although Chuck should probably also planned for this and brought extra food.

[chuckro.livejournal.com]

As I commented earlier, I thought this was going to be more of a "gentle walk in the park" sort of thing. That, and we set off from her parents' house--there really wasn't much opportunity for me to stock up.

Normally, I do try to have nuitragrain bars or something with me.

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry. I didn't realize you didn't realize that this was actual hiking, not walking in the park. I should have been more descriptive.

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

You could have gone hiking after hearing today's Tort lecture, which was focused on different combinations of negligent hunters and lightning strikes. Scary.

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

Lightning and hunters? OK, you're going to have to explain that.

I actually know people who got lost on a hike and were forced to cut across a field. The owner took issue with this and shot at them for trespassing.

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

It was on joint causation.
Hypo 1: D negligently shoots and kills P, and P is hit by lightning right afterwards. D is liable.
Hypo 2: P is hit and killed by lightning, and D negligently shoots P afterwards. D is not liable.
Hypo 3: The lightning strike and shooting occur simultaneously. D isn't liable.
Hypo 4: Two defendants simultaneously and negligently shoot P. Both are liable under a joint severable cause theory.

And so on for about 10 of these...

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Sucks to be P.

[edgehopper.livejournal.com]

There was an exchange after the first hypo

Prof: So P gets shot by D, then gets hit by lightning. Plaintiff sues D for negligence...

Student: Wait...he's not dead?

Prof: I mean, his estate sues D...

[ivy03.livejournal.com]

I think I saw a Law and Order about this...

[jethrien.livejournal.com]

Oh, there's a Law and Order about everything.

[shnayder.livejournal.com]

You mean a hike like "let's just go for a walk.... we must be half way around the lake by now... well ok, we must be half way by _now_... now? ... now? ... Almost there ... There's no point turning back now, it'll take too long. Hmm.. how'd we get behind this fence? ... Oh, hello Mr Nice Dam Official, we're just walking around the lake"? hehe (I can't believe that was over 3 years ago!)