Dragons tooth: a large rock protruding from the mist, providing the perfect habitat for a raptor to swoop down and grab me in its talons or a T-Rex to stomp out of the jungle trees and swallow me whole. Fortunately neither of those things happened, and I was left to face the treacherous climb off the dragon's back. We were left sliding and jumping from scale to massive scale on a near vertical down-climb.
It was awesome. The 700th mile awaited us at we slipped over his foot and promised our safety from his terrible maw.
Because there was no marker we took the liberty to make a large "700" out of rocks for all hikers to rejoice over this accomplishment.
The trail led away on a ridge line, and thunder roared behind us, the dragon enraged at missing his meal. Maybe the storm would miss us. No such luck; rain began to fall. Since we were only 3 miles from the road crossing where my mom was meeting us, I didn't take the time to put on a rain jacket and enjoyed the free shower. But soon Zeus started throwing his lightning bolts following the dragon's roar too close for comfort. I crouch-ran along the ridge, like being 2 feet shorter would save me from getting struck. The trail looked like it was going uphill ahead, and I wasn't going to risk facing an open ridge line in the storm, so I cut off the trail and descended steeply a few yards.
Crouching in lightning position, I look down to see a small block of wood with "sweet home" carved hastily into its surface. Was this a sign that this was to be my last resting place? The hail started, bouncing off my exposed arms and head. The wind followed, bending the saplings in half. I was still warm from the exertion of hiking, but I curled up to preserve heat in case the storm lasted. It would be easy to get hypothermic in the cold rain and wind. I spotted Firefly running along the trail above me and I called to her. She joined me, crouching in the leaves. I sang as I watched an ant struggle against the stream of water now flowing down the mountain, and eventually losing the fight and getting swept away. Such is life, though sympathy led me to save a caterpillar from suffering the same fate. After 30 minutes or so we deemed it safe to continue, and the sun soon chased away all signs that it had stormed. Soaked and muddy, we made it to the parking lot and waited. My mom had gotten stuck in traffic, so we made the most of out time watching YouTube videos.
Three and a half hours and a happy reunion later, we found ourselves at a Mexican restaurant stuffing our faces, then a hotel suite where I watched the first bit of Jurassic World before falling asleep. Somehow the dragon had managed to follow us even to there.
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