The date that wasn't

On Monday, I  had a 'date'.  So to speak.  I asked a guy out and suggested hiking.  We ended up going to Camelback mountain and taking Echo Canyon Trail.  For those of you who are unfamiliar with this trail, here is part of the online discription: "Hiking to the top is not for beginning hikers -- the two summit trails are strenuous climbs over sometimes-tricky trails."  This is code for by all that is holy you will be dying unless you are a stair-climbing master and even then you may want to die. 

I am not a beginning hiker nor am I a stranger to sometimes strenuous trails, however this trail was insane.  It wasn't hiking; it was stair-climbing from hell.  It's all stairs with completely uneven treads (sometimes my knee was practically under my chin, while other steps were just a tripping hazard) until you get about halfway up then it turns into mountain so steep they had to put stair rails up so that you wouldn't die from a fall.  That last part is only heresay, as we didn't even make it halfway up the mountain.  Or maybe I should say, I didn't make it halfway up the mountain.  By the time we hit the 1/4 mile mark, I was sucking wind like there was no tomorrow and thought I was going to throw up what little breakfast I had eaten.  Meanwhile, he's standing there looking all suave and cool and I'm bent over at the waist trying to ascertain if my lungs are still functioning.

I ended up threatening to cough up a lung and may have possibly mentioned something about remembering to aim off the trail if I got sick.  I was totally bummed because I thought this guy seemed pretty cool and was looking forward to getting to know him better, but then I go and am so completely lame.

In all honesty though, he was pretty cool about it.  When I apologized, he mentioned something about his knee hurting him anyway.  It was nice of him to try to make me feel better. 

On the upside, we did have a good talk on the way there and the way back.  Too bad the whole thing lasted only about an hour. 

To sum up, I am totally lame.  I have also decided that I will not allow some dumb pile of rocks to kick my butt.  I will conquer that mountain...even if it kills me!