D24: Harder Grat
Where do I begin to describe today? Oh, those sweet feelings of going on an adventure and of challenge. I rose before the sun today to begin my train journey to begin the Harder Grat hike. I love the waking with the morning Golden Hour because there is such anticipation for the day to come. I spent $7 on a coffee which was crazy expensive but the caffeine was necessary to begin my adventure.
The last train I took was an old fashioned steam engine train that chugged up the mountain to drop me off at the beginning point. The hike is called Harder Grat, and it is about 12 miles long where 9 of those miles are on the literal mountain ridge and on either side is a drop off of at least 3,000-4,000 feet making it an extremely treacherous hike. One misstep and see ya later life. This link, Hardergrat: The Best Hike in the World? (theclymb.com), does a good job showing the hike as well.
Over the twelve miles, I gained 4.2k of feet and dropped 7.1k vertical feet making it a difficult hike on top of the risk. One of my favorite things on this hike was rounding the top of this little hump along the ridge and hearing the distant sound of a flute being played in the distance. There was no one around so the song must've carried up the mountain on the wind. It stopped me in my tracks. I sat down and just listened to the beautiful song until it finished after a few minutes. It was one of the moments so beautiful and where I am still not entirely sure if it was a figment of my imagination or if it was reality.
The last two miles of the hike were completely covered in mud, which was bad news bears for my white hiking shoes. Worth it. Once I finished, I met some fellow Americans at the bar located near the end point and enjoyed a few beers to reward myself.
