Cardiac, er, Cataract Falls @ Fairfax

Whew! That hike kicked my butt! My hiking book described it as beauty - that you pay for. "The hike is quite challenging-er, make that steep- um, make it a real heart thumper." It was a 700 feet elevation gain in the first mile. My heart was thumping alright. I wore my heart monitor and burned 600 calories on the hike up, which took just over an hour. On the hike down I burned another 325. That made room for some beer and lumpia at the Filipino potluck I went to afterward. Alright, enough text, here's some pics:



There were more steps like these than I can possibly describe. It was like every time I came around a corner, more steps!

I paused many times at beautiful spots like this one to catch my breath and slow my heart-rate down a bit. My heart-rate hovered in the 160's while climbing and when it hit 170 is usually when I had to take a break. Flat ground was a breeze, but there wasn't much of it.

None of the pictures I took did it justice, of course. But this gives you an idea. All in all it was a beautiful hike, wonderful and perfect weather, great company and a lot of gratitude that I was able to actually finish the hike. 3 out of our group of 8 had to throw in the towel half-way up. In the past that definitely would have been me.