2018-10-06 Ben A’na

HHR:  It is my understanding that today was the big day for the Ben A’an hike.

Larry:  Yes, we were all excited.  Do you know anything about the hike?

HHR:  Yes, I am  familiar.  Ben A’an was originally known as An Binnean (small pointed peak) but lost its name due to Sir Walter Scott calling it Ben A’an. It stands at 1488 ft and is easily completed in 3 hours.

Larry:  It sounds like you know something about the hike but do you really know the details of the hike?

HHR:  I am a hard hitting reporter of course I know.  You start at the large car park and cross the road to the path on the other side that says Ben A’an. Follow a  path up through the forest, crossing the occasional stream and the bridge until reaching a clearing that views the destination for the day. There are  muddy points when going through the forest but, these are not of any great inconvenience.   The summit cone offers a large choice of rock climbing opportunities, however for  hikers it is the path to the summit. The path to the right of the cone is the one and although steep at points is fairly straight forward.

Debbie:  Let me tell you what really happened HHR.  We started at the parking lot and dodged cars to go across the street.  We saw the sign.  We followed a path straight up the mountain.  Finally, someone pointed out that we had to climb about 100,000 steps crossing a bunch of mud and streams.  Larry kept saying that he didn’t want to go anymore.    I kept saying, “I am going because I saw someone in a kilt and thought it might be the Outlander looking for me”.  I let  Larry pass me at the end because I was trying to make him feel good.  It was not because I was thinking of flinging myself off the cliff rather than walk up it.  We lost Jerry and Joyce for a little while or maybe they didn’t want to hike with us.  I was chanting “Outlander, Outlander” as I crested the summit.

Larry:  I feel that the hike was misrepresented.  It was a rock climb not a hike.  We had to scramble to the top.  Scramble is not the word that you want to use with hike.

Debbie:  I thought that I was going to fall off the mountain.

Larry:  Probably because you were walking so fast.

HHR:  What happened when you got to the top?

. Larry:  We took lots of pictures.  Debbie tried to sit with other people and eat their food.

Debbie:  We left our food down below.  I was hungry and I heard those Mothers offering ice cream to their kids as a reward to keep hiking.  I thought, well, I made the top so why not share that ice cream?

Joyce:  I want to jump in here that the views were really great but it took awhile to get up to the top.  I had not issues but kept stopping for the views not because it was a straight up rock climb.  Three hours must be a miscalculation.

Debbie:  I got road rash on my hand.  No, I didn’t fall but these kind of things happen when you rock climb.  I agree with Larry.

Jerry:  I had to do some backtracking to retrieve some items left on the mountain so that upped my time.

HHR:  Missing items?

Joyce:  We don’t want to talk about it.  We have everything now.  Jerry needed a good work out.

Larry:  It was a good workout and it is not really true that Debbie and I were laying in the grass when Joyce and Jerry got to the parking lot.