Osceola and East Osceola

It was a beautiful day today, perfect for hiking!  I slept until 8:30 because I was tired from yesterday's climbing, bit of a mistake.  I got to the mountain at about 11:30 ish, I had to park kind of far away from the trail head (I didn't realize how far until I finished and was so scared that my car was gone, but no - I just had to keep walking. I had it worked out in my head that I was going to cry if that happened.)  Anyhow, it's 3.2 miles to the top of Osceola, and there are switchbacks! So, it's a pretty OK hike, not too hard, though of course it's a 4000 footer (I think the trail starts pretty high up).

I need to do more aerobic exercise, because I was pretty tired hiking up, and needed to stop several times and breath and listen to my heart get slower.  But, I left at 11:45 and got to the top at 2:01!  Which is not bad!  My plan was to stop and rest, eat a sandwich, and then go over to East Osceola.  Which I wasn't excited about doing, but it was what I went there for... It's a mile to East Osceola, but the hardest mile of the hike. The only cool think about it is there's this part called "The Chimney" that's pretty much rock climbing. You can go down a more gradual way, but then I climbed up. Super fun! I would say about a 5.4 or so, maybe outside 5.2-5.3. Not hard, but no rope and it was pretty high.  And I enjoyed that!  East Osceola itself, though, not so much.  It's a pile of rocks with no view. There were so many bugs today, I looked at it, was like, "yup, made it," peed in the woods, and then left.  I had planned to save it for last, so I could end where I started - I'm so glad I didn't!

I got back to Osceola and had the place to myself!  I'm sure that never happens, there were like 30 people up there when I was there the first time.  I was so tired, and there were all these bugs (probably why it was empty) that I just lay on my back, spread eagle, on the ledge for a minute, waving my hands around my head to keep the mosquitos away.  Next thing I know, a red cross helicopter is flying towards the ledge and I was like "that can't be good."  I got up to let them land, and they came close, and then waved, and then I realized they were coming to rescue me.  I almost wished they had, but then I couldn't count it.  Maybe it was practice, because they were there for a while.

The way down was both nice, and torture. It's a really nice trail, and I would totally do Osceola again. Like I said, switchbacks. There's some nice granite slab, and I practiced trusting my feet. I was low on water, and had to stop to filter more.  As I got lower, there were more and more bugs, until they were everywhere, even though I was wearing DEET. It became so miserable. Because I can almost ignore sore feet, but the bugs!  At one point I thought I was close to the parking lot, but then I realized I was at the last switchback, which took me a half hour to hike up to.  I was so sad. But, I just kept reminding myself I would be blogging about it before I knew it.  After, I stopped at a convenience store and bought a pint of gatorade and drank it all.  I was sweating so much!

So, tough one - Osceola would definitely do again.  East Osceola, not so much. No more hiking until the black flies are gone. But, more aerobics.