A Surprise Adventure

Work is winding down a bit. We called a pharmacy staff meeting over lunch; John bought us all lunch and I gave my final case presentation. I'm going to miss the people but I won't miss the bike ride :-)

So originally I was going to take Katie up Three Sisters today, but then she couldn't go, so my game plan was to do some errands and maybe walk around Near Island a bit. At 5:00, however, Josh (one of the hiking guides from the weekend Audubon hikes) texted me to see if we were still doing Three Sisters (I had given him our schedule of planned hikes in case he wanted to go on one.) So even though it was just us he wanted to go, so we did. When we got up there he drove past the trailhead I had used last time and said that we were using a secret trail which goes around the mountain (the North Sister) up to the saddle between the North and Middle Sister. I thought this was very cool. Indeed it was one of the most beautiful hikes yet. We hiked up a stream which magically turned into a hunting trail fifty yards up. How ridiculous.

But what truly was ridiculous was the prominent ridge lines of mountains stretching out before us, their sharp peaks lining up so you could just about walk across them if you were proficient at tight roping. We glassed two deer during this hike, including one that was bedded down 400 feet below us on the way down. We also talked a good deal about deer hunting on the island. Once on the saddle btn the two mountains, we hiked up the Middle sister in 10 minutes just so I could say I got another peak. The is the really rocky looking mountain in my pictures. The view of the Ocean and the bays behind the green-soaked mountains is hard to describe and impossible to capture in photos. I gave up trying after realizing that the only way to really see how beautiful it is, is to go there and look at it with your own eyes, which makes it that much more special.
After hiking down from Middle Sister, we hiked up the North Sister from the back (West) side. Josh bet that we could do it in 15 minutes since we did the other in 10. Then he starts blazing up this mountain. It was not small or gradual either. So for the first time I start to feel I need to slow down for sake of jelly-legs and deep breathing. I do just enough to give him about a 30 foot lead, but and the end am not too far behind him, though I am huffing and puffing pretty hard. He gives me a high five and says, not bad, 11 minutes. Completely uncalled for.
On the way down, one more adventure to cross off my list. My left boot had a malfunction. The whole sole came off, probably from all the sideways cutting I've been doing to get down these mountains, but none the less, it was inconvenient. But we made it down by 9:30. I'm guessing between 4 and 5 miles in 3 hours, including some extended scenery gazing. But some of those miles were pretty intense. What an awesome night.