More Lonesome A Capella

Last week kicked my butt. I ended up working about 50 hours, 20 of those on Saturday and Sunday with a middle of the night visit to the Anderson Music Festival between them. My reward come Sunday night was getting Monday off, but I couldn't just let a day off pass by without going and and doing something. I decided to climb Mt. Healy.



I got dropped off at the trail head around nine o'clock and scrambled up to the craggy summit just before noon. It was a beautiful day. I took a break along a grassy ridge to watch some Dall Sheep climb on a distant cliff, then continued up the mountain a bit more to find one on my trail. It stared at me blankly as I said hello and tried to persuade it nicely off the trail. Fortunately it listened and meandered down the hill away from me as I snapped this photo.



I wanted to find an alternate root down just to keep things interesting, so I went off the backside of Healy in search of a trail I'd heard connects to the park highway. There was no such trail. Instead, I found my way into a gorge I knew was feeding at least in the right direction.

The canyon flatted out and turned into a gentle creek bed, varying from just a few to fifteen feet wide and lined with heavy brush. The perfect environment for grizzlies and the worst place to run into them. There were bear prints and bear scat everywhere, and I was convinced I was a gonner. I sang the whole way down again, getting tired of songs I knew and creating originals. It was four o'clock by the time I finally saw telephone poles and electric wire in the distance, accompanied with the sound of busses on the park road. What comfort they brought. The solitude and serenity of marching through the flowing creek was too muffled by the paranoia of what was around the next bend. I won't be hiking alone again for a good while.

At the top, before the trek down

Yesterday morning I took out a couple from San Diego along with an office girl we just hired on our extended tour. It didn't feel like work. Then last night a few of us met up with that couple to enjoy all you can eat Salmon, ribs, mashed potatoes, and corn at a dinner theatre nearby on the house, with of course a hefty tip expected. Here's a look at a section of our extended trail, not a bad office to show up at every day huh?