I went out to the Hill Of Life today and it beat me down. Which was what I was expecting it to do. That doesn’t mean that I’m a masochist or anything, it just means that I knew full well that I’m in no shape to take on HOL, yet I went out there anyway.
hol-up the hill
Sometimes, you just have to stop being a pussy and take the bull by the horns. So to speak. That’s a weird mix of metaphors if you stop and think about it.
hol-trail section
Of note, there were a bunch of people at all of the falls that I came across. I don’t know that I’d get into that water at any time of the year, but I guess people are getting their swim on before the water turns too murky to swim in. I managed to keep my feet dry both times I crossed the dam.
hol-waterfall hippies
Other things of note:
- I helped out a guy that was lost on trail. I was listening to some music, so who knows how long he was actually calling out for me before I heard him. The dude got lost, which is really easy to do, and wanted to know where he was. I told him where he was at, to which he replied that he wanted to get back to the Mopac/360 trail head. I gave him directions on how to get back there, and sent him on his merry way. He was about 3.5 miles from that trail head.
- Who said “head?”
- I ran into a hasher named “Ice Chest” while out on trail.
- I ran into possibly the friendliest mountain biker I’ve ever met on trail. The dude snuck up behind me, again, I didn’t hear him because I guess I was playing my music too loud. Anyway, he said “excuse me” and “thank you” and he even gave me some words of encouragement as he rode past.
- There are two trail maps, because I accidentally hit “stop” instead of “pause” when I stopped to help out the lost runner.
hol-resting rock
I love going out to Hill of Life. The thing that really sucks about this trail, is that people aren’t always responsible with their pet’s waste. I appreciate people using the bag to pick up their dog’s waste, the few that actually do, but why do you leave the bag down on the trail?
I walked a lot more than I wanted to during the second, and hilliest part of the trail. I wasn’t too thrilled about that, but I was a little light headed so I didn’t want to push the envelope too much.
hol- trail map 1
hol- trail map 2
Total distance was 3.45 miles. I’d originally wanted to go 4 miles. I guess the hilliness of the route is going to have to make up for the shortage of distance.
Here’s the elevation profile, can you tell where the big hill is?
