What goes up must come down.

Yup, the Half Dome story does not end with how we got to the top. We had to get back to terra firma, right? So, read on.

[If you want to know how we wound up perched on the top of Half Dome in the first place, read [1], [2] and [3]]

At the top, we all congratulated each other and posed for victorious pictures. The top of HD had a pretty big surface area - much larger than a football field.


V, E and C explored a bit - S and me mostly admired the view from one spot as it let us be least mobile :-D. As I enjoyed the spectacular view of the valley, thoughts of the climb back down constantly interrupted my thoughts!


We could not spend too much time at the top. We were among the last few people to have climbed up Half Dome that day. Unless we hurried, we were running the risk of darkness descending upon us during our return back to the trailhead.

So, soon, we all set off to descend down the cables. Given how terrified I am of heights, for the return trip down the cables, I decided to choose a configuration in which I would feel safe. C and V would lead the way showing me how to climb down. S would follow them. I would follow S and finally, E would bring up the rear.

For the first few steps I was okay. Then we reached the steep section of the descent. As I looked down, a wave of dizziness swept over me and I tried to fight back panic. It did not help that this story kept flashing into my mind. Climbing down sidewards was recommended. Even then, the section was so steep that there was no question of climbing down - I had to slide from one plank to the next. And sliding isn't a very easy thing to do when you risk dropping some 390 ft to the ground in case you mis-slid.

I managed to climb/slide down some more planks with E encouraging me (btw, E slid, sitting down the entire way - he was having fun!!!). Then, while sliding down to a plank, I lost my footing a bit and slid down mostly on my behind, hanging on to the cable for dear life with both hands.

At that point I froze, utterly panicked. With the cables as narrow as they are, I was holding up all traffic behind me with my slow pace. But I couldn't have cared less. As long no one asked me to move, I could spend the rest of my life on that plank as far as I was concerned!

Then, someone behind me asked if it was okay with me if they passed me. Sure - just don't ask me to move! Then a guy climbed down past me. I don't know what prompted me to do so but as he climbed down onto the plank below mine, I meekly called out to him "Please, can you just stand on that plank and watch while I climb down to it? I will feel better if someone is watching me."

The hiker looked up at me and said, "I noticed that you are very scared. I was wondering why no one of your party was keeping step with you". I pointed out to S in front of me and E behind me. The hiker (henceforth referred to as God - as far as I am concerned, he saved my life) said, "Let me do one thing - I will put my leg between the planks. You can lean your foot against my leg and use it as a support. Remember, my leg isn't going anywhere."

Now, instead of sliding five feet to the next plank, I had to only slide two and a half feet, upto his leg and then slide down the other two and a half feet. I thought God would continue descending after I came down that one plank.

Instead, God cheerfully told me that he would do this all the way to the base of Half Dome! He said he was happy to be of use. God's technique made climbing down so much less difficult. Like a trusting child, I obediently followed his instructions. He kept up a constant stream of cheerful conversation and encouragement and I finally stopped focussing on how far away the ground was! E was right behind me, shouting out encouragement too. We made slow but steady progress.

Finally, at long last, I stepped off the last plank and I was back on terra firma! And immediately, a whole bunch of people who had been watching the descent applauded - hehehehe. Hikers are one nice and helpful bunch!

God gave me a big hug and I posed with him for a picture - not that I would forget his kindness or help ever. Waving good-bye to God, the five of us set off on our return trip. We did not have any time to rest - it was already 6.00p. So we all set off immediately for the return journey.

Remember the no-step portion of the Steps I talked about here? Well, I did not even notice it during the descent - after that descend down Half Dome, this was child's play! After getting down the Steps, due to an urgent need to use the restroom, the guys practically ran all the way upto Little Yosemite camp (the nearest place with "facilities"). S and me couldn't keep up with that pace (as S put it, "I am constantly moving my legs and I still am behind, what else can I do") and were lagging behind by about 15 minutes.

At Little Yosemite campsite, we re-synchronized with the guys and all of us headed to Nevada Falls together. Once at Nevada Falls, we had to make the call about whether to take the Mist trail or the John Muir trail. The Mist trail was shorter by 1.2 miles but we would have to tackle the trecherous, steep and slippery steps near Vernal falls. It was already 8pm and our chances of being caught in the dark just near those steps were very high.

We decided on the Mist trail and set off immediately. My only aim at that point was to get to the base of Vernal Falls before it turned dark. I had nightmarish visions of me slipping and falling off the steps in the dark and this fear gave me a rush of adrenaline. Apparently, it was motivating others too. We literally ran down all the way from Nevada Falls. V in the lead, S behind him, then me, then C and then E.

At any other time, I would have threaded my way carefully over the rough rocks and slopes on that trail. But that evening, like Eliza in Uncle Tom's Cabin, we bounded over the steps not even pausing for breath. And we were right in doing so. Just as we reached the base of the Vernal falls, the last traces of daylight faded away, plunging the Valley into darkness.

I had been responsible for making the list of required items for the hike. I added "flashlight" almost as an after thought (why on earth would we still be hiking in the dark?) on that list. S had bought a new hike-worthy headlamp specially for the trip. E had brought along a powerful flashlight too. Those two lights (along with my, as V put it, useless flashlight) saved the day or rather the night. We hiked the remaining one mile back to the trail-head, the lights picking out the way. The valley was silent and after sometime, we could see the moon shining on the Merced river. It was calm, quiet and beautiful.

My knees which had been complaining (but which had been ignored) during the latter half of our fast descent started acting up and we took two short breaks to relieve the cramps. Finally, we reached the trail-head. From the trail-head, we still had a not insignificant walk back to the car. C and V offered to bring the car closer while we waited.

E, S and me had to walk some more distance till the pick up point. As we waited for them, E first sat on the dark ground. After a while, my sore legs got precedence over any fear of snakes and I squatted beside him. S bravely continued standing.

Then the car arrived and we stumbled into it. It was 9.45pm. We drove back to the townhouse and were received with cheers from the rest of the folks. I had a shower and saw the white soap turn into a dirty brown! There wasn't too much talking while we ate dinner. Soon afterwards, we retired to bed.

We had gone the miles we had to go before we could sleep!

Stuff which did not fit in elsewhere:

1. If you are wondering how I still remember every single minute detail: well, so would you, if you had told the same story to different people in excruciating detail about half a dozen times (besides telling the abridged version several more times) :-D.

2. I don't know how much my training helped me in the actual hiking. But it did help in quick recovery. Though on Sunday noon, the day after the hike, V, S and me did something akin to the March of the Penguins as we walked from the car to the restaurant we had gone to for lunch, by Monday noon, I had completely recovered - yaaay!

3. My descent back down the cables marks one of the most terrifying experiences of my life. I still break into sweat when I think back to how I stood on the planks. Needless to say, climbing up (or down) heights is not for me and unless they start helicopter service to the top (or God decides to go when I go :-P) I am not going back to the top of Half Dome.

4. Only after seeing my wonderful performance while descending to the base of Half Dome did V, E, C and S realize exactly how scared I had been though I had mentioned it quite a few times on the top. Either I joke too much or cry wolf too many times :-(!

5. Since we were among the last hikers to have climbed HD that day, many of the people we crossed on our way back had been at the top of HD around the same time as us. And guess what, quite a few of them remembered me and told me "Good job!", "We are so glad you came back down safe" etc. - ah, fame (hahahaha) comes in so many ways!!!

6. Yup, I am finally done with my narration. Till now you really did not believe that description for a one-day hike could span four posts, did you :-P?

Going to Half Dome - 3

Continued from parts 1 and 2. If you are still reading this, you really rock dear reader :-D!

When we stepped over the Steps, onto the base of Half Dome (HD), we were stunned. For, this is what we saw:

The line for climbing up to the top of Half Dome seemed to extend longer than the line to view Lord Venkatachalapathy at Tirupathi! Even fun rides at Disneyland have shorter queues. To think we had read that not too many people hike all the way to Half Dome - hmph x-(!

Resolving ourselves to our fate of a long wait before we got to the cables (which would take us to the top of Half Dome), we plonked ourselves at the tail-end of the queue. Initially, we had planned on having lunch on the top of Half Dome. That was an impossibility now, unless we were ready to starve for the next hour at least.

As I forced myself to eat at least half of my sandwich, I had the chance to have a closer look at the (in)famous cables. From where we sat, it seemed like two parallel ropes tacked onto a vertical wall. The people on it looked like tiny ants.

How on earth were we going to climb it?

But at that point, I was so exhausted that I really did not have the energy to think about an effort which would happen in the future (irrespective of how near that future was). Instead, I lay down on the shelterless, sun-baked ground. Pulling my cap over my face, I almost fell asleep, oblivious to the sun and the heat! However, as the queue inched forward, I had to change my position at regular intervals which prevented me from completely sleeping. For the first time in my life I could understand how the people snoozing on the hot pavements in Chennai could do it!

Finally, an hour and forty five minutes after we had reached the HD base, we were at the cables. The cables are two parallel steel cables attached to the side of Half Dome. They are about three feet apart. On the ground between the cables, every five feet or so is punctuated by a narrow (and rather wobbly) wooden plank. The way you climb the last 400 feet of Half Dome is: pull yourself from one plank to the next using the cables.

We all wore gloves to protect our hands (some of us had brought our own, the others picked out gloves from the discarded glove-pile lying at the base of HD). At the last minute, in a flash of inspiration, all of us other than E decided to leave our backpacks at the base and pick it up later (smart move). And finally, we were off!

The first few steps we managed to scale without too much difficulty as the gradient was not too bad. As we climbed higher, the gradient became steeper and the slope began to tell on my hands. I had to literally pull myself up from one plank to the next. Soon, I was hanging on purely by the strength of my hands for the portion of the climb between the planks.

I had a quick look downwards - the slope fell away sharply and the ground seemed so far away. I immediately began to have serious doubts about whether I would be able to climb back down (the cables were shared by both the ascending and the descending hikers and some of the descending folks had looks of abject terror on their faces) . I called out to S, who was slightly ahead of me - "Should I just go back down?". S encouragingly said that having come thus far, we should just get done with it.

We climbed and climbed and climbed. It seemed like the planks would never end. Just as I thought my hands would finally give way, we climbed over the last plank and onto flat land. I collapsed onto a rock, unable to think of anything other than my climb back down - how was I going to do it?

And then, all of a sudden, it struck me. Half Dome! I was on top of Half Dome! YES :-D!!!

To be continued ...

Shoes

"Oh yes, there is apparently an awesome shoe sale going on at DSW - check it out if you were thinking of buying shoes", I helpfully told my male friend K yesterday.

K thought a bit and said, "Hmm, I need shoes, maybe I will go."

I conversationally added, "Actually I was thinking of going today to check the sale out. But I don't have the mood to buy shoes right now - so maybe I will go tomorrow."

K looked flabbergasted and asked, "Mood to buy shoes? What do you mean you don't have the mood to buy shoes today?"

I stared back at K, wondering which part of "I don't have the mood to buy shoes" was difficult to comprehend.

K continued, "You just need to know the size and the color you want and you are all set to buy!"

Hahahaha - that's where perception of shoe-shopping differs between males and females. My usual definition of shoe-shopping is this:

• Go to the shoe-store with plenty of time to spare.
• Walk up and down the aisles checking out the shoes on display.
• Try on any shoe which catches my fancy, irrespective of price or utility or color.
• Try on even weird looking shoes just to see just how weird they can look.
• In between all these steps, *if* I like a pair and it is priced right, add it to my shopping bag for future billing.
• Repeat the above process till I run out of aisles or I get bored, whichever comes first.

You need to have a proper mood for doing this, no? How boring to simply go to a shoe store, armed with a size and a color, and coming out in five minutes!

I think (or at least hope) I am not alone. My female friend C was the one who called me on Friday evening, sounding like Christmas had arrived early. "Arch, you wont believe this - DSW has designer shoes at upto 80% off. Yippee!" She continued talking with some more breathlessly excited statements. And finally said, "Check them out. I would like to talk to you longer but I need to continue shopping.Tata!"

Today I went to DSW. C had not been kidding. The sale was really, really, really good. All the women folk inside the store looked like they had attained nirvana and were inside heaven. The men folk looked like they would rather have been at any other place on earth at that point than at the shoe store.

Oh well :-D!

Going to Half Dome - 2

I am too tired and sleepy today to write this post. But my mommy says that I will forget the story if I don't put it down soon. And when mommy says something, you pull up your socks and listen to her. So, here goes part 2. Part 1 of the story is here.

We set off with great enthusiasm from Happy Isles. Though apparently not too many people hike all the way up to Half Dome (a statement which we later found was grossly untrue), quite a few people hike up to the top Vernal Falls which is about a 2.5 mile round-trip hike from Happy Isles. Hence one could expect a lot of company upto the top of Vernal Falls. So far from being able to enjoy a tranquil communion with nature, we felt like we were taking part in a major procession as we plodded along with scores of fellow-hikers

About five minutes into the hike, my breakfast of half a bagel disappeared into some corner of my stomach, never to be heard from again and my stomach started begging for food. After ten more minutes of treading up the gently upward sloping hike, S and me were already ready to take our first break. Uh-huh - we had not even gone a mile! V, E and C plodded onwards further- apparently there was a scenic spot up ahead where we could take a proper break. We all congregated there and first flurry of photographs were taken.


Much to the amazement of C, E and S (how can you already be hungry?), V and me polished off our first energy bars at this place. Then we continued on our way. V has already been to the top of Half Dome twice and this was his third trip (yeah, I do have some crazy friends :-)). So we had someone with whom we could check our progress. This advantage was somewhat nullified by the fact that V also has a poor memory :-(.



Shortly thereafter, we reached the point where we had to decide between taking the Mist trail or taking the John Muir trail to the top of Nevada Falls. The Mist trail is shorter and more scenic. The caveat: it is much steeper and the elevation gain is more rapid. The JMT would be longer, dustier and less scenic - but it would be easier. During our pre-hike planning, we had decided on taking the Mist Trail for the onward trip and the JMT on the return journey as we had read that the Mist Trail is even harder on tired knees on the way back.

As we continued along the Mist trail, we got a stunning view of the Vernal Falls:

This somewhat helped us forget the fact that we were climbing up steep, roughly hewn stone steps. We climbed and climbed with plenty of frequent but short breaks (that is the best way to do it. Long breaks just serve to break the momentum without offering significant relief). Though the steep steps seemed to be never-ending, S and I found them easier to climb than the steep slopes (the guys did not agree). As we neared the top of the falls, a light spray of water from the Falls kept us company (hence the name Mist trail). Finally we reached the top of the falls. We had gained quite some height in a short time! The picture shows the steep climb we made:



We took lots of pictures, happy in the knowledge that we had reached our first significant landmark. By then, we had also settled into our hiking "rhythm". From that point, it was on to the Nevada Falls. This journey consisted of a mostly upward trail too. All five of us were maintaining more or less the same pace (and same energy levels :-)). V said we were doing good time in spite of our gatorade/energy bar breaks.



Finally we reached the top of Nevada Falls. There was quite a big congregation of people at that point as it marks the convergence of the Mist and the JMT trails. After a short sunscreen-application break and waiting for horses heading to the JMT trail to pass through, we continued on the dusty road near the Little Yosemite Valley campsite. This was really flat and walking on it felt very good after all the climbing we had done till that point. Once we reached the end of that road, it would be a relentlessly upward sloping trail of various inclines all the way till Half Dome.



By this time C, who has knee problems, was beginning to feel some cramps in his knees. We took frequent breaks so C could rest before continuing. On the way, we bumped into two friends A and B who were making their way back down after summitting about 2 hours earlier. In an exemplary act of encouragement, A gleefully told us, "Oh, there are really huge lines to climb up the cables. You guys are at least 2 hours away from the base of Half Dome. I don't think you will have enough time to be able to climb to the top today." Gee thanks X-(!

Waving good bye to them, we proceeded further. Noticing S's and my worried faces, E cheerfully said, "Oh don't worry. Those are guys - they are just trying to impress you girls by saying such things." Though the reasoning did not make any sense, we laughed and just decided to carry on as best as we could!

As we hiked further, we could get the first glimpses of our destination: Half Dome in all its glory!



We must be near - yaaay :-D! However, we plodded on for what seemed like eternity and still Half Dome did not seem to be getting any closer. All those miles we had hiked and the hot afternoon sun was beginning to catch up with us. I wearily asked S, "Tell me again, why are we doing this?". S stared at me and then frostily replied, "Because you convinced me to do so?" Er...heh, heh, right!

Finally, at long last, we stood at the base of the Steps, the final piece of trail to tackle before we got to the base of Half Dome itself. The Steps are rough, what may loosely be termed as steps, hewn into the mountain side. After nearly 8 tiring miles of hiking, we had to drag ourselves from one steep step to another. When I say steep, I am talking about being able to see the top of these steps almost directly above you. After climbing about seemingly two zillion steps, we had almost scaled them. At this point, we ran out of steps and there was just a smooth, steep bit of rock to clamber over - a misstep on which would leave you tumbling down the hill like Jack in the nursery rhyme.

What!?! I stared accusingly at V, "You did not tell me I had to climb rocks!" V nonchalantly replied, "Would you not have made the trip had I told you that?". Hmph! I at least wanted to have had the choice!

Putting my faith in God, I carefully climbed (oh well, as carefully as my tired legs could climb) the rock, trying hard to not think about how on earth I would manage while going back down and focussing entirely on the rock face without looking down. I safely reached a stable spot and looked down. As I saw the steep drop back to the bottom of the Steps, a wave of dizziness swept over me - bother my fear of heights and falling down!



From that point to the base of Half Dome was a relatively easy hike. As we reached the base of Half Dome, around 2pm, about six hours from the time we started our hike, we got the biggest shock of the day!

To be continued ...

Gimme some more!

I want paper cards. Lots of them. From good friends. From parents. From best friends. From sister. From friends I no longer am in touch with. From cousins. From acquaintances. From uncles. From friends I made through unconventional ways. From aunts. From that random person I have spoken with just once. I want paper cards.

Going over them is a joy I simply cannot describe. There is no other explanation for the silly grin on my face right now. The only thing I did in the past ten minutes was quickly glance through some of the paper cards I received in the past few years. Sadly though, the number of paper cards I receive is decreasing drastically every year. I hate e-cards :-(!

I think I just stumbled upon the perfect activity for a lazy afternoon - leisurely browse through received paper cards :-D. They serve as an awesome window to view the past. But for now, I better get back to cleaning my room which started it all! I really think I ought to be given some award for happily coming up with innovative ways of side-tracking whenever I am forced to do some boring chore.

Going to Half Dome - 1

For the past three years, at the beginning of every summer, I would plan to do the famed Half Dome hike in the Yosemite National Park. And every summer, invariably something would come up and I would be forced to cancel the trip. Till this summer. This time around, five of us, C, E, V, S and me wanted to do the hike. And miraculously, till the departure date of June 22nd, the plans stayed unchanged.

C and E left for Yosemite earlier in the day. V and me picked S up at the airport (yeah, S actually flew in from Seattle to do the hike thanks to a certain kind soul named Archana who did very good PR :-D!) and left for Yosemite later in the evening.

The trip started off fine. We had an one hour break for a proper dinner at a proper restaurant (a rather dumb decision in retrospect as evidenced when we did the "available time to sleep" calculation). We reached the entrance to Yosemite around 10.45pm. After travelling several miles and seeing no significant sign boards, I was convinced we were lost. Except for a sporadic vehicle or two, the roads were deserted and there was no other light. Through the shadows I could see rows upon rows of redwood trees, their silhouettes outlined in the moonlight.

This was my first trip to Yosemite (yes, I have stayed in California 6 years and have not been to Yosemite before - and your point is?) . While I could sense the majestic beauty even in the darkness, I had dreadful misgivings about getting lost (no cell phone signal either) and being forced to sleep in the car and thus wind up serving as bear lures*.

Mercifully, much in accordance with V's confident predictions, we safely reached our destination (without making a single wrong turn!) at midnight - a beautiful townhouse nestled inside the Yosemite park. We quickly settled down for the night. Four hours later, it was time to get up and get ready for the hike.

As it slowly turned bright outside, all of us filled our camel-baks, stuffed as many Gatorade bottles as would fit in, made sandwiches for lunch, squeezed in energy bars, sunscreen, trail-mixes, flash-light et al. We hurriedly gobbled down some breakfast and rushed around to speed up the preparation time. Still, it was 6.30a by the time we set off from the townhouse.

To make things worse, we promptly got lost trying to get to the valley. Finally, we managed to reach the parking lot for the Half Dome hike trail-head. Only to see it choking full. A reverse turn found us a parking space about a half mile away from the trail head (oh great, we had just added one more mile to our already looooooong ~17 mile route). There, we vigorously applied sunscreen and then, hauling our camel-baks onto our shoulders, we set off, bright and merry.

We were beginning our hike to Half Dome from the trail-head at Happy Isles. We reached it at 7.50a. We had officially begun our hike!

*bears are a genuine threat at Yosemite. Which was why we rented a car to drive down and made sure that we never left any food in the car at any time while it was parked.

Training

Week 1: ~6 mile round-trip hike at Castle Rock.

Week 2: Series of short hikes over three days at Utah.

Week 3: ~8 mile round-trip hike at Rancho San Antonio park.

Week 4: ~11 mile round-trip hike at Purisima Creek Reserve.

Week 5: White-water rafting at Kings Canyon.

All this training sort of helped me do this:

Week 6: ~17 mile round-trip hike to the top of Half Dome at the Yosemite National Park.

YES - I climbed up Half Dome yesterday. I made it all the way to the top and back. And I am still alive and kicking. YES :-D!

Miracle

I had to share! Here are the first tomatoes (yes, yes, there is more than one :-D) on my tomato plant peeking out:

Bribe

I am mighty irritated, sleepy and queasy today. I guess a total of five hours of sleep + an early day at work + mid-week blues + irregular timings for breakfast and lunch can do that to a person. I have been trying to hold up with major infusions of coffee and tea. I think I am slowly turning into Caffeine-Lady.

Anyways, all of the above translated into a grumpy and sad-looking me. My poor friend at work, P, had to bear the brunt of it. I cribbed and complained and cribbed some more. Finally, P said that he would buy me ice-cream to cheer up. Aiii :-D! I don't like ice-cream all that much but as P put it, "free ice cream is a slice of heaven".

No matter how much I complain about the rampant corruption and bribery prevalent in India, I do love to get bribed sometimes. Especially for doing something which I have to do anyways and which will ultimately benefit me the most! Now, this is not a wish which can be easily fulfilled but my friends, room-mates and family members have sometimes made it happen.

I owe my Master's degree in part to my dear friend (and former roomie) J. For the longest time, though I had enough data to get started, I kept postponing writing my thesis. Just the thought of the task overwhelmed me so much that I did not feel like starting it even. That was also about the time book 5 of the Harry Potter series was going to be released. I had been badgering J to buy it so that I could read it (I had some fundae about why I couldn't buy it). J kept resisting my efforts.

Then, one fine morning, J said, "Okay, here is a deal: You start writing your thesis today. Write at least five pages of your first chapter. Whenever you are done, ping me. I will come over to your lab and order the book online. You can read it first when it arrives."

Harry Potter motivated me where so many others had failed. That noon, I actually started writing my thesis and wrote more than five pages. J promptly ordered the book and as per the promise, when it arrived, I read it first too (in one long shot interspersed with tea and food breaks - the tea and food of course being made by roomies J and R :-D).

Obviously, once I actually got down the task of writing my thesis, it no longer seemed as daunting. I had been successfully bribed to start writing my own Master's thesis!!!

There are other such incidents of small-time bribery. Thinking of them always brings a smile to my face :-)!

Coincidentally, R and J are getting their doctorates today. I am off to Davis later this noon to felicitate them. Up ahead: an evening to relive the good old times! YES :-)!

The Arches

Story continued from here.

The next morning, long past dawn, all of us got up and got ready. We were still in good time for the hotel-provided breakfast though. We finished our breakfast in batches, bought water and other essentials (read snacks) in Provo, where we had halted for the night. After picking up coffee (only Starbucks coffee, P insisted) we were good to go.

Our plan was to visit three national parks in Utah: Arches, Canyonlands and Bryce Canyon National Park. Thus our vacation would essentially be a road-trip interspersed with lots of hiking to view the various sights the parks had to offer.

Arches National Park was a good three hours away from Provo. K, P, B, S and me set off in one car, a Toyota Camry. The rest were in the other car, a Pontiac Grand Prix. Other than V, who never switched cars, all of us managed to ride in both the cars at various points. Of course, since the Camry was bigger and more comfortable, S and me stuck to it for most of our trip - hehehe!

Our journey to the Arches consisted of travel through desert-like lands. I was extremely surprised to see the barren landscape since I had somehow pictured Utah to be on the same level of green as Seattle! I guess I had confused Yellowstone National Park with Utah (don't ask me how, it is a long story). Though the morning had started off being slightly chilly (thus bringing doubts about the wisdom of exclusively carrying only summer clothes), it was baking hot during the drive.

The drive went off in chatting, admiring the landscape - the vast vegetation-less flat lands soon gave way to beautiful erosion-sculpted rocks - and listening to music. On day one, Guru music was a soothing accompaniment. By day four, I was ready to burst into tears if anyone insisted on playing the Tere Bina song one more time.

Due to the various different times at which the two cars took breaks, we wound up having lunch at different places. Our car stopped at a Mexican restaurant - decent food, while the members of the other car had Subway sandwiches for lunch :-)! After lunch, we synced up to make our entrance to the Arches park together.

K and B were the main planners for the trip. Both, especially B, are hiking enthusiasts and had included a lot of short to medium hikes as a part of our sightseeing plans. By some freak coincidence, both S and me had wound up buying the exact same hiking shoes from REI though we had bought it independently at different times from different cities! These shoes are heavy and hence we also carried along slippers to wear when we were not hiking.



At the first stop, Courthouse Towers, once the cars were parked, great preparations went afoot for hiking. S and I changed from slippers to shoes. Everyone applied sunscreen, donned hats and sunglasses. Then everyone stocked their backpacks with water and Gatorade. The ones owning camel-baks filled the water-pouches up. Finally, after some fifteen minutes of intense preparation, we were all set and good to go.



Thus, it was rather an anti-climax, when, two minutes later, we stood in front of our destination! Apparently, this view point actually did not require any hiking. Sheesh! However, the fortress-wall like structures was awesome to look it. I couldn't believe that these were nature-created!



After Courthouse towers, it was on to the Balancing Rock.



The picture speaks for itself I guess! This involved a little more walking around but it was still manageable. I guess the intense heat had a much more vital role to play in sapping our energy! There were some climbable rocks around and all of us had a fun time clambering up and down.



P provided the most amount of entertainment - he climbed up a slope and called everyone's attention to the fact.



Immediately, someone came up with the brilliant idea of throwing small pebbles at him as target practice - P soon decided to come back down in a hurry!



From the Balancing Rock, it was onto see the Windows. After mounting a series of steps, we saw a natural "window" on the rock face. S exclaimed, "Hey, I can see a vista through the window....Windows Vista" - I guess you cannot forget your roots :-P!

We spent sometime sitting on the base of the rocks on the other side of the Window. It was very calm and peaceful! Some more hiking brought us to the other Window - the North Window. Together, the windows looked like the eye-mask of some super hero :-)! Most of our gang refused to hike up to the North Window to get a closer look. But B, K, S and me had totally gotten into the hiking mode and went up close there too!


From the Windows, it was time to go to double-arches. The heat put off most people to hike up to see it. But R, T, S, B and me set off. It was totally worth it! I climbed some more rocks there - it was really good fun.



By now, it was getting late. It was time to hike up to see the Delicate Arch. We wanted to be there during sunset. The Delicate Arch hike was the longest hike of the day - some 3 miles round trip.

At the entrance to the hike, there were dire warnings about carrying enough water and wearing proper footwear. We loaded up our backpacks with additonal water (though my sad excuse for a backpack could not hold more than one half-litre bottle of water in it at at time, forcing me to carry one more in my hand), reapplied sunscreen and set off. R had a rather full looking backpack - to our questions he seriously replied, "Oh, I have a frisbee, a ball and my flute in it." Huh!!?!!

This hike started off on even land. But soon, it turned into an upwardly sloping hike. I started puffing and panting like a steam engine. R was at the lead, I was behind him, trying to keep up with his faster speed - the advantage being, I could happily reach some point and then pant at leisure while ostensibly waiting for the others to "catch up".

We hiked up a hill and then the path became considerably narrower as we climbed closer to the top. I was still following R like Mary's little lamb. At some point, R climbed onto a really, really narrow and uneven trial, where one edge sloped away into the valley. My heart lurched into my stomach as I put my foot on the ledge. Oh my God, what if I fell! Putting all my faith in God and still clutching one bottle in my hand I followed R and safely got over to the other, wider end.



Finally we reached the top. This is what we saw:



Wow! The Delicate Arch! WOW! This one sight alone justified the cost of my air-tickets! On two sides of the Delicate Arch, rock formations provided natural seating. We joined the many people already seated there in eager anticipation of sunset.

Taking long sips of water, we waited for the others to show up, and they soon did. We all descended a little further down and sat watching. Some of the more adventurous folks among us went to take a closer look at the Arch. S and me were both terrified of falling off the ledge and we stuck like lizards to our chosen rock seats.



Unfortunately, the sun set behind clouds that day, so we couldn't see any dramatic color change. So we set off back down. That was when I remembered the heart-stopping narrow ledge and asked S how she had managed (S is even more scared of climbing than I am) . S replied, "Which place are you referring to? I did not have any difficulty anywhere!". R and I were both puzzled - were we really that chicken that only we felt that the ledge was dangerous?

On our way back, the mystery was solved. What had happened was, while climbing up, R in stroke of brilliant genius had deviated from the established pathway and had instead climbed onto an non-existent "pathway" on the slopes instead. Of course, me doing my "Mary's little lamb" act had blindly followed him too! If anything had happened to me, I would have haunted R for the rest of his life!!! The funny part was, on the way back, R had actually whipped out his camera to make sure he captured S's expression when she navigated the "difficult" portion :-)!



R, T, S and me descended down the trail in one group. The rest of the hike was non-eventful, other than T insisting, "You should not look at the ground and instead follow your body. It will guide you well." Well, his body guided us all away from the established path and S and I wound up having to scramble on all fours at some points before we got back on track X-(!

Finally, we reached the cars, utterly exhausted. Once everyone reached the base, we set off towards Moab (the nearest big city) for dinner. We tramped into the restaurant carrying about half the dust of the Arches with us.

After dinner, we checked into the hotel and then went straight to bed. Our earlier plans of getting up early the next morning for a sunrise hike was, obviously, unequivocally scuttled without any protest from anyone.

Photo credits: These pictures are from R's and S's cameras. I am not sure exactly who took which picture - but it was definitely someone among the nine of us :-)!