Had a fire this morning. A little chilly. Changed into our hiking boots and headed out on the White Ledge Trail. It was only a 4.2 mile loop, but I think it was the worst hike I’ve been on. 45% up and 45% down. Really steep in places. On our way to the summit you could almost have been on all fours it was so steep. Then we picked a spot to eat thinking the trail would start down so we had our lunch. We were both pretty beat. And we still have to go down! The trail markers up at the top are all cairns because it’s all granite up there. After lunch we followed the cairns thinking we’d be going down, but we’re still going up. STILL not at the summit. So we kept going. The view was incredible but not worth the climb up there (Mike would probably disagree with that). I hate going down the steep parts most of all because it’s so easy to slip on loose gravel and fall on your butt. And your feet push against the toes of your boots. And your legs are shaking with the strain. I was in pretty major pain by the time we got past most of the steep part. Mike did much better than I did. Took five hours. I was going pretty slow though and Mike had to keep stopping and wait for me to catch up—on the downhill part anyway. Got back and I put the pack away and jumped into the shower. Felt really good. Still in pain though. Think I’ll pop a bunch of Advil tonight. We leave for Jigger Johnson National Forest campground tomorrow. I’d much rather stay here but we’ve been here two weeks so we have to leave I guess. No phone signal over to where we’re going either—which is probably good because I’ve already gone over my minutes this month. I should use Mike’s phone more. He gets carry-over minutes. Gotta go find some pain pills.