Philly Hike, unlimited fun [Sat 18]

Original plan was to leave for the hike at 7, got up at 7.45, everyone got together and left at 8.45. YP drove. Two hour journey to a mountain between PA and NJ. Stopped at a gas station on the way where we found the super-duper white-sounding name that SHK uses at Starbucks that she sometimes forgets she uses. N teased her a lot about it, and we gave her starbucks name an alter-ego, a more exciting wild interesting version of SHK who gets into trouble all the time because of her wild antics. Talked to family while at the gas station. It wasn't wawa.

The other folks got croissants and coffee and fruits, I didn't get anything.

By the time we reached at the base of the mountain it was 11.30. Quite hot and energy-sapping, we were afraid it was going to be an awful time in the sun. Fortunately the sun wasn't bad as the tree cover gave us enough shade to be able to walk. ON the other hand the upward climb was very steep and tiring. The scenery wasn't great...it was just a bunch of trees, you couldn't see a vista. Step after step after step, intense climb on a a hot humid energy-sapping day. SHK kept me company, telling me tales of her cats and her various attempts at reinventing herself all of which fail for one reason or other.

It was so very tiring, I finished two bottles of water in the first 30 minutes. The headache was sudden. The heat and humidity was bad, I was hungry tired and potentially dehydrated. Kept pushing each step up even though it felt like I could be throwing up at any moment due to exhaustion. Was ready to call it a day after an hour/hour-and-half into the hike but kept at it. We would take it slow and easy but work towards finishing it.

On the way we met direct Karma, who has directed dozens of Nepali movies, some with quite famous actors. ND knew him from back home, they talked about the hike, the situation, art etc for a while. YP and I kept walking, so tired but not ready to give up. We sang three four actually different renditions of we shall over come in three languages, to shore up our energy level and to give us the strength to keep climbing. Met a couple of Australian women on their way down who said the walk wasn't going to be bad at all so we persisted.

Finally finally finally after what seemed like an eternity we got to the peak of the mountain and boy oh boy was it worth it! You could see two/three states out of there, and there was a direct ledge to the parking lot, if you had a parachute you could fly down in ten minutes. You could probably hike in twenty minutes straight down if you really really knew what you were doing. We spent half-an-hour/an hour taking photos making fun of each other and just appreciating the beauty of the place. ND realized he had been there before three weeks before, but through a different trail.

Walk back down was much easier, so much energy in us, we sped up so fast. SHK and I really got to know each other as we talked about all the things under the sun. We saw a few wild deer, not afraid of humans, just chilling grazing in the forest not caring for my loud voice. Some time later we saw a bunch of black bears right by us in the forest, lowered our voices and went on. There was a couple with two young kids right behind us, they looked a little bit shaken and afraid, but they said they weren't afraid, they let the bears go and expected them to treat us in the same manner.

We came across a water pool. YP jumped into the pool...dipped her feet into it. SHK did too. I dipped my feet too, N and ND did not. YP said she'd jumped into the pool full body, I dared her, and she did. Dared SHK to do it, said I'd do it if she did, she was not into it. Finally got the courage and energy, along with proper planning, to do it, jumped into the water. It was so damn cold but ohhh boyy so refreshing. It was an amazingly good decision to have dipped into the water. We spent half hour there. There were around a dozen or so people there, but there was proper distancing and the water was flowing so there wasn't too much of the corona rule-breaking. It's possible we may have seen a neo-nazi there because there was a guy with a large A with a lightning sign tattoo on his body but we didn't say anything about it. There were a lot of Amish or Pennsylvania Dutch families, which we found comforting because they are generally quite peaceful and loving people and like to be left alone and not bother with other people's businesses. Figured if we were attacked or something they'd protect us.

I got to show off my really nice pair of boxer briefs, which is what I swam in. On our way down, changed the boxer briefs for regular double-layered running shorts, so I didn't have to wear wet clothes. As it happened, YKD had dry clothes in the car, she didn't have to wear wet clothes either. If SHK had jumped, as I had egged her to do so constantly, she'd have been the only person to have no dry clothes. In the end it worked out quite well for everyone.

Found the dip in the pool really refreshing. The walk back to the parking lot was peaceful and full of energy. I suddenly got a headache, possibly due to walking for hours and doing intense swim exercise without a bite of food in my and not much water. Got into the car, drove to a taco bell, folks got couple of different items I got tacos locos and a packet of doritos plus a couple of blue gatorades. SHK and I tried finishing the doritos, we got along made so many good jokes too. She can nap within 10 seconds and kept dozing off in the middle of my sentences which was great because that's more material for jokes! After two physically uncomfortable hours, because I was hungry tired dehydrated my head hurt I felt cranky and I couldn't sleep, we got back to Philly.

My head was throbbing with pain. The NYers went to their airbnb to rest, I reheated my tofu rice and scallion pancakes and had a large serving of it. Took a nice hourlong nap, and then a warm shower. Felt so much better after that. Realized I feel hunger as sharp headache when the rest of my body's not feeling right.

After taking care of the headache we walked over to Veda which is an amazing Indian restaurant's that's quite upscale. I didn't eat anything there except their Nimbu pani, with dried nimbu on top for smell -- what an interesting idea by the way to put dried citrus on juices and mixed drinks -- but the folks tell me it was amazing. N says it's one of the better Indian foods he's had in Philly and he's going to be ordering in from there even though it's twice as expensive as his regular place. Took a bunch of photos of each other there. Left for a wine store right before the closing time, it had closed an hour earlier .Went to a beer store. I didn't get anything, decided to get raspberry beer to sip on and make people taste it. SHK bought it for me because reasons, I felt bad!

Came back to N's place with the beers, spent the next three hours talking chilling drinking having fun. I had three shotglasses full of the raspberry beer. Up until 2 in the morning, the guys couldn't walk at all so they got a 4-minute uber ride. YP was apparently so tired she made the uber drop her off right in front of the door of their place, which was in an alley because her legs couldn't do the 20-second walk. We felt asleep pretty much right after sending off the guests.