The Mountain Play

The Hike to the Mountain play has been something I look forward too a challenging hike climbing an elevation of 2000 ft in just over 6 miles if you take the short route, longer if you did as we did the longer route up.

Starting off at the Dipsea steps in downtown Mill Valley the air was cold - in fact freezing, my sweater was on, the dipsea stairs run in three sections and wow, as usual I was ut of breath after taking just a few steps - and this was just the start - I was now thinking maybe taking my cool bag an supplies was a bad idea! Stop moaning and climb we have a deadline of 1pm to meet.

Up and Up

Up and Up

 by the time we got to the top of the stairs, we could relax m

ore and chat more and we got in our stride, removing my jumper we were now in the sunshine leaving the houses behind and heading straight for the stars (or at least the top of the mountain)

This hike is totally breathtaking but more about that on the climb down, walking up and up through some shaded areas with little bridges and water falls, some sun shiny rocks every step was a different thing to look up, Catching up with Margaret w

as great too, just walking chatting isolated with no cell phone reception talking about everything we headed on our journey.

We were doing well but still had a way to go and the time was getting on we picked up the pace and keep moving but we took the wrong route we took a longer slower up hill which was torturous, cutting corners we were desperately trying to meet the deadline, it was 12.45 my legs wanted to stop, but I couldnt, I couldnt even get my breath, please can we just stop for a minute?? No if we did we would miss the start so we kept going, I will miss the part where they insisted we go to the box office to get our tickets the rou

te brings you out at the back of the stage! I was panicking and a swear word did come out, but I left margaret with the bags and sprinted along the road another 1/2 mile to get the tickets! and then back again and we entered the theater as the word "ladies and gentleman welcome to the 95th Mountain Play " sounded - what a relief our friends had kept our seats, we sat down and I slugged a diet coke and ate 1/2  my sandwich (a safeway turkey one  - no tomatoes :( )- we had arrived.

With hiking the most amazing thin is the recovery time, after just 5 minutes of watching the play (which was brilliant) we felt ready to tackle the down hill but the play was just over 2 1/2 hrs so we watched it all and enjoyed a glass of wine in th

e sunshine.

The Hike down the mountain is glorious too, we took a slightly different and quicker path and we were down in 1 hr 30 min, but what is different about coming down is you totally get to appreciate the views, looking across to the City of San Francisco, seeing the whole of Marin, trees, beaches, water, it was totally amazing, no matter how many times you see it, it is beautiful.  

We got to the bottom, achieved over 13 miles that day on our hike and cant wait to do it again, I just wish i had worn my garmin - to measure it exactly so  - that is a good excuse to do it again later in the year

I felt good......................Thanks Margaret for your friendship and your amazing company.