Going South - The Hardest Part... Part #3
After a short water break we began what would be the toughest physical thing I have ever done. This is supposed to be the easy trail.
During the early part of the trail the rocks were knee high, and they looked like boulders, during the second half they were more like small cars. Take 75,000 Toyota Prius and throw them off a cliff, now climb that pile of cars. Now stack about 30,000 more small cars on top of those at odd angles, throw in some moss and loose gravel and continue climbing for 2 miles straight up with little in the way of rest area's. That is the second half of the Abol slide trail.
Looking up the rock walls in front of me I realized there could be no turning back, it was going to take a 
while to get to the top and we were going to be racing the sun home but it had to be done. I think Brian realized if he brained me with a rock he could head back down and quit this crazy adventure. To his credit he only thought about it and soldiered on.
The Abol slide trail is named as such because at some point in time there was a huge rockslide on the mountain and somebody thought hey a shortcut! The thing about rock slides is the rock hasn't always found a stable resting place and wants to continue the slide downhill. Tons of loose rocks were just waiting to plunge down on my head with nothing but a simple slip of a foot.
There were times making the ascent that I had to make a leap of faith. being 5'8 creativity was key in climbing. Where Brian would be able to grab hold of a edge and pull himself up, I had to do a zig zag and leap between boulders to find an easier way up, this made for some interesting climbs and a lot of angry looks from Brian as he watched me do in a quick scramble what took him 10 min to climb over.
Finally we hit the top of the major rock climbs and hit the Table lands where the Abol Trail merged with 
the Appalachian Trail.
Looking down that long rock pathway it had to be the most dangerous thing I ever attempted. Yet I didn't have a single ounce of fear I will explore that a little more over on my life with a Brain tumor blog www.going-south.org
Part #4 incoming the final climb and the LONG way down.