[pct-l] Yogi is a suburbanite!!

[pmags at yahoo.com (Paul Magnanti)]

>>Next thing you know, you'll be seeing them in
Walmart, >>waddling down the aisle with their jumbo
sized soft >>drink and a churro.  


Ah! This quote from Donna reminds me of a story.

This past summer, a few friends and I did a full moon
hike up Longs Peak here in Colorado.

Longs Peak is the only 14er (14k ft mountain) in Rocky
Mountain National Park. As such, it is a VERY popular
mountain. Easy to get to from the Denver area.

I generally do not enjoy doing 14ers. Too crowded;
more a Disney experience than a wilderness experience.

However, starting at midnight by the light of a full
moon, it is another story. My friend Deb and I made it
to the summit just before sunrise. Saw the sun rise
over the eastern plains. The same rising sun lit up
snow covered peaks to the west with a pink glow.
Awesome! 5000k elev gain in a night ain't too bad. :)

I had a thermos of hot drinks, some coffee cake and
three of my friends also showed up. We had the summit
of Longs to ourselves for almost an hour.
Unprecedented on a 14er in summer! Never mind Longs!

Anyway, we headed down the trail. The first group of
peopel going up were invariably fit, look to be
comfortable on the mountain and seemed to be having a
good time.

A little furthe down, the people still seemed
comfortable in the mountain. They may have been a
little slower, but still seemed like they were
enjoying themselves quite a bit.

Further down the trail, we started to see the parade
of tourists. Looked much like Donna desrived.  Red
faced, out of breath, almost always from the Mid-west.
No food and water. (Above tree line at this point,
too! Over 11k feet!). Many of them wore, I swear to
god, Teddy Bear sweatshirts!  Deb and I now have a
private joke of calling a *certain* type of tourist
hikers (for, I am tourist hiker as well on my
thru-hikes) "teddy bears".

FURTHER down the trail was just plain dangerous.
Mountian Dew in one hand, a Slim Jim in the other.
Clouds on the summit (Thunderstorms!) and they were
still heading up. The people were intent on going to
the summit of Longs. If you know anything about
Colorado in the summer, it tends to have T-storms in
the afternoon. I politely told them they may want to
turn around. Some listened, some did not. Many teddy
bear hikers! :)

So that is my suburban bear story. :)

If anyone wants to see pics from this awesome night:
http://snipurl.com/n3zj




************************************************************
The true harvest of my life is intangible.... a little stardust 
caught, a portion of the rainbow I have clutched
--Thoreau
http://www.magnanti.com