Another hike we attempted was the Highline Trail. John had made it a little further than I did because I was again mortified of the icy snow on the trail close to the edge of a cliff - I thought it more prudent to stop before I ended up part of the landscape.
Thankfully the snow had melted and I was able to go a lot further, but again, as with climbing an ice covered mountain, venturing out always seems considerably easier than getting back to where you started.
The hightline trail, as I previously mentioned, starts out pretty easy in a semi-wooded valley between mountains. However, it take this turn and is literally carved into the rock on the side of the mountain with a pretty sheer drop off on the one side. Mercifully you are provided a lifeline - a 1/4 steel cable covered with garden hose. Again, going out is easy - you are on the side of the "road" with the cable - coming back, you are on the wrong side of the "road."
It took me little while at our turning around point to psych myself up enough to go back but at that I made way for hikers coming in the opposite direction to go around me - I wasn't gonna be the one on the cliff side of the road if you know what I mean. Thankfully the other hikers must have seen the fear in my eye and were pretty cool!
See, the beginning of this starts of pretty nicely!
Then you get to this cliff action and it starts getting a bit scary - at least for me!
That line along the middle is the GOing-To-The-Sun road...which was below us!!
After the cliff face, the trail mellowed about and looked like a big pile of rocks. That snow patch up ahead was where I called it quits...the idea of slipping and sliding off that this was too much for me! Yea, I know, I'm a sissy!
Still, the view was pretty spectacular!
This is Garden Wall up close and personal.
You can see this is where the trail heads back to the cliff part of the trail.
See those teeny tiny hikers? This will give you an idea of scale - note the sheer drop off! Somewhere in there is my friend the garden hose covered cable.
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