63 and free

“Bernie-time” yesterday, so that meant hiking with a stupid amount of vertical. We went to Te Mata peak.

First we went UP.

Then we hiked DOWN, joining the “yellow trail” where we parked the car. It went further down. Much further down…eventually plunging into the Florin/Guilder Fire swamp (surely you have seen “The Princess Bride” more than once?!).

On the good side of the ledger, the rain had doused the fires and made the ROUS* disappear. On the bad side, it turned the mud into WD40 and I was wearing treadless Skechers.

* Rodents of unusual size.

Even slowing our pace to that of a geriatric snail didn’t completely save me. But, I only skidded off the runway once and the backpack saved me and my phone from total destruction.

No, there is no video…