There and Back Again: A Knobbit's Tale

The next day was our day off. We decided to take advantage by doing the Alex Knob hike, an epic 8-hour hike. Mike generously offered to drive us to the trail head--a walk would've turned it into a 12-hour hike, so we gratefully accepted. He dropped us off that morning, and we began our journey, fully loaded with lots of water, sandwiches, and snacks. We were prepared for anything. What could go wrong?

The beginning wasn't too bad--just a gravel road through the rainforest, although it was uphill the whole way. Then we got to the fork in the road, where we could decide between a 10-minute jaunt to Wombat Lake, or start climbing the ridiculously steep rock formations that apparently formed a "trail" to Alex Knob.

Road to Wombat Lake

This is more or less what our trail looked like at the beginning...only steeper.

So we took the scary trail, still feeling fresh and adventurous. We started out well, stopping occasionally to take pictures. We were walking in a cool, shaded rainforest, so we weren't even getting hot or thirsty. At first.


After a while the fact that we're both in terrible shape started to kick in. Other hikers started passing us, and we took plenty of breaks to "view the beautiful scenery" (aka to catch up on water and drink water). Some of the views:

We also snapped some pictures on the trail itself:

One of the many "switchbacks" (aka mini cliffs) we had to climb up.

We kept going and going, wondering how far it was to the top. We let more and more hikers pass us, happily taking our time. The only thing that mattered was making it to the top.

To shorten a very long trek, we eventually made it. It took us 6 hours, but we didn't care. We made it!!!

We ate our sandwiches and soaked in our victory by admiring the Franz Josef glacier. Life was good. We were exhausted, but we made it. And it had definitely been one of the most fun hikes I'd ever done!

After a while we decided to head back--didn't want to miss our free dinner, after all. We turned back and headed down the mountain. We had to climb back down those nasty switchback-cliff things, which was always a bit of a puzzle... And before we even got back to the treeline, I heard a shout behind me. I whipped around and saw Mariah on the ground, clutching her ankle.

"Okay okay, don't panic!" I said, clearly panicking. We established that she could move and put some weight on it, so it probably wasn't broken. At least that was something.

"Can you keep walking?" I asked worriedly.

"Do I have a choice?" Mariah responded, a determined look on her face. She had a point. We were on top of a mountain, after all. We didn't even have cell phone service. What else was there to do?

Post-injury Mariah

So we took our time going down the mountain, and Mariah successfully walked all 7.1 kilometers to the bottom. This time it only took us 4 hours, although it felt like an eternity. We kept our spirits up by playing 20 Questions or listing off things we were grateful for ("I'm grateful for the moss, because it cushions me when I fall.")

Mike kindly picked us up again and we went straight to the hot tub, then to dinner. We were a bit banged up (more than a bit, in Mariah's case), but we had made it, and it had been AWESOME. Once Mariah's ankle heals up completely we'll be doing some more of these hikes in the. Can't wait!