By the Seat of My Pants

After yesterday morning’s abysmal failure to climb to the top of Arthur’s Seat, I decided to give it another try in the evening.  For the second day running, we had a beautiful day.  It wasn’t too hot; the sun was shining.  What more could I possibly ask for?  Other than the clouds to stay away until the evening, so I could get a shot of the sunset from the top of the volcano.

Anne Marie, Laura and Sarah agreed to go with me.  What with everything and the cold on top of it, I wasn’t sure I could make it on my own – at least safely.  Come hell or high water, I was going anyway, but it felt better to have them along.

The trek began at just after 7:00 p.m.  Sarah and Laura had gone out to eat and would meet me part way up.  They’re much faster, so if I could get a bit of a head start, we had a much better chance to capture the sunset.  As it turned out, Anne Marie stuck her head out the door just as I was leaving.  After I explained what was happening with the others, she decided to come along with me.

Atop Arthur's Seat

The higher we climbed, the more of the city we saw spread out below us.  Many of the locals and tourists alike had made the same decision to take advantage of the “gift” day.  Cars, bicycles, hikers, joggers made their way to the summit at various speeds.  We weren’t the fastest.  I’m not sure we weren’t the slowest, but it didn’t matter.  We were getting there and along the way had plenty of time to take photos and introduce ourselves to the bunny population.  They’re breeding like……rabbits.  I’m not sure if there is any other breed that reproduces so quickly.  Mice and rats, I suppose.

By this time, I’m sounding more like a hole-y squeezebox than not.  My legs are less than pleased and I knew that very few, if any, of my body parts were going to be anywhere near happy with me in the morning.  Finally, with a “little help from my friends” I made it.  I made the summit!  You’d think I’d scaled Everest. When I found out that the Seat was only 822 feet high, I do have to admit to being a bit disappointed.  I thought it was much higher than that and it surely felt like it.  Somehow it didn’t seem to be much of an accomplishment after all.  I gave myself a mental slap upside for that thought.  It shouldn’t and doesn’t matter how high it was – I did it and I’m proud of myself.