Can I do it?

I'm practically in a coma. My feet are up, somewhere between tingling and throbbing. I'm trying to move as little as possible. The shower, post-hike helped, but this one really took a big piece of me. I had heard this hike was a doozy, both from hiking buddies as well as posts on the internet. Now I can add my testimony that it is indeed a whopper of a hike!

It was barely light out when we hit the trail this morning. The gates to the El Cajon Open Space Preserve were locked, forcing some creative parking and a sprint across Wildcat Canyon Road. Apparently there aren't many who head out this early, but really it was a blessing to be in the cool foggy morning air (first time this week I've been happy about the fog!). We looked at our watches, or cell phones and noted the time: 5:40. How many hours was this hike supposed to take? 4, 5, more? Almost immediately it began to climb. Now I've done my share of uphills. Some are right in my neighborhood, while others require a short drive: Mt. Woodson, Iron Mountain, Cowles Mountain. Still others a bit farther: Tahquitz Peak and San Gorgonio (although I'm fibbing about the last one, not doing it until next week!). The deception of this hike is that it isn't just straight up. In fact, it's up then flat, up then down, and up, then up and up! I cannot recall at which mile the biggest hills could be found. I can recall that as I occasionally looked up through the dense fog, I saw the trail going straight up for a long distance. Some hills required slow, painstaking steps, feet carefully planted to prevent slipping. The common thread among all of them was steep and long! Small downhill sections were followed by even longer and steeper climbs. I thought, more than once, that these hills were going to be tough to come down as well. That thought and the fact that the occasional down hill going in meant uphill going out!

I knew that eventually I would make it to the top. That eventually I'd be back in my car. And eventually I'd be sitting with my feet up. The thought that floated to the top as I trudged on was if this little mountain in east county was kicking my booty, then what was the tallest mountain in the continental US going to do? Am I really ready for this? Have I trained enough? Am I nuts, crazy, looney, stupid? What am I thinking? Really? Mt. Whitney? On the other hand, can I dig deep, muster what it takes to do the climb? Perhaps the insignificance of El Cajon Mountain contributes to its difficulty, while the grandeur and significance of Whitney allows it to be obtainable. I don't have the answers to these questions. No amount of research, nor the endless browsing of the Whitney Portal Blog will tell me what I will or will not be able to do on July 27th.

I did make it to the top of El Cajon Mountain and back down again. And while I am spent, exhausted, and used up, I've already forgotten the agony of the hills, and am ready to believe that Whitney is something doable afterall.