The President's Corner
July 24th, Rock Castle Gorge, 98 Degrees and Orange Sherbet
Saturday's hike was going to be HOT. The latest forecast for nearby Stuart was for a high of 96 with a heat index of 100! Surely there would be a lot of cancellations. Jim had hiked in all ranges of weather, but nothing this extreme. His next thoughts were concerns of safety. He could stress the importance of frequent water intake as the group went uphill. They all know that, he thought to himself, but it would make him feel better if he at least mentioned it.
After the pre-hike intros and brief guidelines, the group of 24 started uphill in temperatures already in the mid 80's. He was sweating after 5 steps. Jim Plant, as usual, offered to "sweep", allowing Jim to move to the middle of the group. The group went up at a moderate pace, stopping frequently and drinking water. Some- body behind Jim said... "So Jim, since it is so hot, can we have ice cream when we get to the top?"
"Very slim chance of that today, I checked earlier and due to the high demand they have already sold out"
Thoughts ran wild through his head...."orange sherbet, yes!, or a lime freeze , yes!".......... Maybe he should just contain his thoughts to reality................"it's 98 freakin' degrees, the heat index must be 110, my frozen Gatorade is hot and I'm still two miles from the top"...........
The group arrived at the shelter 45 minutes later. "Whew, a hundred year old shelter with just 3 walls never looked better."
As he made his way inside and saw the group relaxing in the shade, he noticed something different....... "There's Judy and Jay, I know the last couple miles were in the hot sun, but I do not remember them coming up the mountain with us................and what are they opening...........OMG.................It's ORANGE SHERBET! There, in front of Jay was 2 half gallons of the frozen elixir of life for hot tired hikers........."
Many thanks to Judy Davis, Jay Young and Jim Plant, Nicole Mazgaj and Jay's nephew Eric. They had planned this in advance and I can not think of anything that would have been more appreciated under the circumstances.
Just goes to prove..................Hikers are really nice people.
"It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." --Sir Edmund Hillary
I hope to see each of you on the Trail
Jim
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