![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dagibbsI went hiking with iclysdale today. We took a fairly long, hard 4-hour hike around some not-on-the-map trails in Gatineau park. Up the escarpment out past Luskville, along the top north-eastwards for a way, then back down again near Hay (sp?) Lake.
In doing some scrambling on the way up I took a nasty fall that could have been disastrous. We were climbing through some talus, when I went to make a move off a good (to the eyes) foothold, and the whole foot-hold flaked off, and I start falling at which point I grabbed for a handhold, and the boulder that I grabbed decided that meant it should roll towards me, too. It came crashing to a stop across my thighs -- but luckily stopped by another rock, with just enough room for me to slide out.
After extricating myself, and doing inventory, I found my left knee felt a bit tweaked, and I had a few minor scrapes. I decided to sit for about 5 minutes, quietly, just to make sure that really that was all that was wrong, and that my knee really was mostly ok. (Shock and adrenalin can do strange things to pain/damage sensations in the body.) Everything seemed mostly ok, but as we were starting the descent (which is always hardest on the knees as well) my left knee started to hurt, and about 1/2 way down the right joined it. I've had this before (like when I hiked with gabriel_le on the AT) and it will get better. (Climbing has, actually, made my knees stronger from what I can tell.)
Still, it was a gorgeous hike, and some of the views from that section of the escarpment are stunning. But, even without the fall -- not a light hike. The ascent is probably somewhere around 250+m (800 ft) of vertical. (Yes, gabriel_le, you did a lot more than that on the AT.)
All in all, though, I'm glad I made it out. But, wow... gaining potential energy takes a lot of work.
In doing some scrambling on the way up I took a nasty fall that could have been disastrous. We were climbing through some talus, when I went to make a move off a good (to the eyes) foothold, and the whole foot-hold flaked off, and I start falling at which point I grabbed for a handhold, and the boulder that I grabbed decided that meant it should roll towards me, too. It came crashing to a stop across my thighs -- but luckily stopped by another rock, with just enough room for me to slide out.
After extricating myself, and doing inventory, I found my left knee felt a bit tweaked, and I had a few minor scrapes. I decided to sit for about 5 minutes, quietly, just to make sure that really that was all that was wrong, and that my knee really was mostly ok. (Shock and adrenalin can do strange things to pain/damage sensations in the body.) Everything seemed mostly ok, but as we were starting the descent (which is always hardest on the knees as well) my left knee started to hurt, and about 1/2 way down the right joined it. I've had this before (like when I hiked with gabriel_le on the AT) and it will get better. (Climbing has, actually, made my knees stronger from what I can tell.)
Still, it was a gorgeous hike, and some of the views from that section of the escarpment are stunning. But, even without the fall -- not a light hike. The ascent is probably somewhere around 250+m (800 ft) of vertical. (Yes, gabriel_le, you did a lot more than that on the AT.)
All in all, though, I'm glad I made it out. But, wow... gaining potential energy takes a lot of work.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2007-11-11 11:51 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-11-12 05:27 pm (UTC)