Monashka Mountain

This weekend we decided to go backpacking with Mr. F.  Our plan was to hike to the top of Monashka Mountain and camp overnight, then spend the morning relaxing and hike back down the mountain in the afternoon. 

Latitude:  57.85444

Longitude:  -152.449

Elevation: 1800 ft

You can just type in Monashka Mountain in Google if you want to see it.

We gathered our ragtag group of hikers and set off to the top.  We expected to have five people at most but we ended up with nine.  By a show of hands the wife, Mr. F and myself were the only people who had actually been backpacking before.  Fortunately for the other six people we would be skipping the beginner and intermediate levels of backpacking and jumping straight into the miserable category.

Mr. F and the wife had been up this mountain years ago so I did not know what to expect.  The mountain was much steeper than it seemed from the ground and I soon found myself holding on for dear life.  We were scaling rock, but the rock was covered with vegetation so that you could hold onto it while you inched your way to the top. I have never had so much “fun” with a backpack full of gear crawling up a mountain. 

I neglected to tell Mr. F of my problems with heights until about half way up and he laughed at me.  It took him several hundred feet more to realize that I was serious and that I really do not like heights.  My wife summed the trip up pretty well when she said, “Now that I’m older this trip just doesn’t seem like a good idea, it doesn’t seem safe. I feel like I could fall off the edge at any time.”

She’s not even scared of heights.

Eventually (3 hours later) we made it to the top of the mountain and set up camp.  We had a pretty nice evening but the wind was a litter miserable.  By the time we laid down the wind was blowing so hard that one of tents we set up was looking like it was going to cave in.  Our tent was secured by placing large rocks on top of each stake so they could not be pulled out of the ground.  Our tent held strong, but it rattled so loudly that we never really fell asleep. 

At three in the morning we decided to just take our tent down and sleep in our bags over the hill where there was much less wind.  It was the best decision we could have made and the best two hours of sleep we had that night. 

Then next morning we decided to skip breakfast and just get off the top of the mountain because the wind conditions were less than safe (at least I felt so).  After a few hundred feet of descent the wind finally died down and we were able to enjoy the slide down.  Sliding is how we went down the mountain, which is much faster and a lot more fun than climbing.  Interestingly enough on the way up I felt like if I fell I would roll down the mountain. I was not looking forward to sliding down.  When the time came to slide down it was actually enjoyable and less than terrifying. Somehow the descent did not seem as steep, more mind games.

It only took about an hour to get down the mountain.

Who would’ve thunk it?

The wife said she wouldn’t be doing anything like Monashka any time soon.

Epilogue:

Here is a trick the wife played on me a couple of days later when we got home. She pulled out my underpants and showed them to me because the seat was coved with what I took to be feces.  She then accusingly asked me when I did this. I shamefully told her I didn’t remember but I guess I had made a mess. She then grinned and told me they were my pants I was wearing while sliding down the mountain.

She thinks she is so funny.