{"id":221,"date":"2010-08-02T21:41:00","date_gmt":"2010-08-03T01:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/mbuchholz.com\/blog\/?p=221"},"modified":"2011-06-24T18:48:49","modified_gmt":"2011-06-24T22:48:49","slug":"hiking-the-wildcats","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mbuchholz.com\/photoblog\/221\/hiking-the-wildcats","title":{"rendered":"The Wildcats"},"content":{"rendered":"

Didn’t really see anybody out until late in the afternoon.<\/p>\n

Well, that’s not entirely true…<\/p>\n

I was about four hours into the day, peacefully reading on a ledge.\u00a0 Birds and butterflies were flying about me, the sun was beaming down, warming my tired spirit, and there wasn’t a single sound disturbing the peace in the air.<\/p>\n

Suddenly, I heard a small rustle behind me.<\/p>\n

Then some twigs cracked.\u00a0 Alarmed, the birds had grown silent and flown to higher ground.<\/p>\n

Then I heard what could only be described as an explosion<\/span><\/span><\/span> of incoherent grumbling as the forest behind me was being completely annihilated.\u00a0 I stumbled (cutting my leg) before jumping up–positive I was about to be rudely introduced to my first bear–only to find an utterly defeated (semi) thru-hiker who had emerged out of nowhere.<\/p>\n

His rugged appearance and inability to maintain contact with a clearly marked trail practically demanded his first line to be an exhausted, “what year is it?!”\u00a0 Instead, eyes glazed and speaking only in a cracked whisper, he recited the phrase, “what were<\/span><\/span><\/span> we<\/span><\/span><\/span> thinking” about ten times, cushioning each recital with as much profanity as his drained lungs could pour out.\u00a0 I’ll add that he was alone and I never ran into anyone the rest of the day that would prove the use of ‘we<\/span><\/span><\/span>‘ to be correct.\u00a0 That said, his pack was really nice, and considering mine broke and I had used rope and tape to tie it onto my back, I was quite jealous.<\/p>\n

\"Mt.<\/a><\/p>\n

By the time I backtracked to the 4th and 5th peaks of the Wildcats, I ran into the tourist trap one would expect on a mountain aided by the convenience of a Gondola – people shuffled out of the vessel, rushed a picture of themselves to mark their achievement, and then jumped back on to ride down the mountain with such pleasantries as air conditioning and tinted windows.<\/p>\n

\"Wildcats<\/a>

I almost stepped on a squirrel<\/p><\/div>\n

When I emerged from the woods–walking directly through the crowd, covered in mud, blood, and with a backpack taped and tied to my body–I could feel all their eyes turn towards me as a stillness suddenly flooded the air.\u00a0 I imagined them whispering to each other, “You mean, he actually walked up here?\u00a0 But…but…how?\u00a0 And why!?!? I can’t even send a text message – there’s no signal!”<\/p>\n

I wonder what hiking will be like in 50 years…<\/p>\n

\"Carters<\/a><\/div>\n

\n<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

\n<\/em><\/span><\/span><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Didn’t really see anybody out until late in the afternoon. Well, that’s not entirely true… I was about four hours into the day, peacefully reading on a ledge.\u00a0 Birds and butterflies were flying about me, the sun was beaming down, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[614,4,215,1340,677],"class_list":["post-221","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-landscape-photography","tag-blackwhite","tag-hiking","tag-mountains","tag-nature-photography","tag-white-mountains"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbuchholz.com\/photoblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbuchholz.com\/photoblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbuchholz.com\/photoblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbuchholz.com\/photoblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbuchholz.com\/photoblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=221"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbuchholz.com\/photoblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3702,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbuchholz.com\/photoblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/221\/revisions\/3702"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mbuchholz.com\/photoblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=221"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbuchholz.com\/photoblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=221"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mbuchholz.com\/photoblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=221"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}