San Luis Parting Shot

We thought coming back down would be much simpler.  We were wrong.  Descending uses an entirely different--and little used--group of muscles.  The upper thighs in particular immediately protest.  They are the main muscles used in slowing your progress--instead of falling face-first down the hill.  Walking sticks, dragged  behind with downward pressure, help quite a bit.

The biggest issue was that, due to the downward slope, our toes were constantly crammed into the toes of our shoes.  For me, this was very painful.  Mike fared worse though.  The pain slowed him down quite a bit and I was very worried about his ability to continue back to the truck without help. (Eventually, he lost at least one of his big toenails)

The next issue was that we ran out of water before we got back to the spot where we had had lunch.  It was getting dark--the sun had dropped behind the first ridge, leaving the first valley completely in shadow--and it started to get pretty cool again.

Being in a dehydrated and painful state of mind, I took very few photos of the return trip.  However, just before we dropped down the first ridge to the parking area, I turned back for this last, parting shot of the hardest thing I've ever done.

We got back to the cabin around 10pm.  The guys had already had dinner, but had saved some delicious trout and other items for us to eat.  They had also gone out and bought San Luis pins for us as a congratulatory gift.

The next day, we had to get up early to take John to the airport in Alamosa.