Dateline: in the Shire, Indy, 23 December 2005

Survived the vertical vacation, and experienced some humbling vertical limits at around 10,000 feet on the La Luz trail ascending to Sandia crest with two oldest kids and baby Vonne Mei on my back (plus the supplies backpack on my chest after Em and Kev got too tired carrying it).

I will never disrespect the notion of altitude sickness again. The last kilometer was an ascent of about 50 stories, and we were pausing every 50 yards. Scary to have to shallow breathe so rapidly to avoid passing out. Kids took to it better than I did, as it's just so counter-intuitive.

All in all it was six-and-a-half hours to go 7.3 miles and ascend 3,600 feet from 7,000 to 10,600 at the crest. Factor in that we were sleeping at about 5,200 in our B&B, and we basically doubled our elevation in about eight hours.

We made the crest just before sunset, by design. Our legs were like lead the last couple of miles, but Em and Kev amazed me by their fortitude. Only trick with Vonne Mei was keeping her warm, but we were very well geared up, and the trail map was superb.

Still, carrying the 60 pounds fore and aft just about wasted me. Hadn't felt like that since US Marine Corps marathon in 1991. Same emotion response: in first couple of hours after completion, I couldn't think back on the event without wanting to cry, which is humbling. It's the only two times in my life where I've felt that weird mix of physical and emotional exhaustion.

Fortunately, the kids never seemed to get anywhere near that, thanks to my decision to carry all the weight for the last five hours. While I was laying on floor on ranger station at crest, trying to recover, they were dancing around the cafe, drinking hot chocolate and chasing Vonne Mei around.

Simply put, I'm not a kid any more.

But what vistas! You can look up at the Sandias from Albuquerque and you will never see what we saw climbing La Luz, the last four miles in snow after starting out in the desert!

Some of the views we took in were otherwordly, like outta the Lord of the Rings (we decided I was Gandalf, Em was Legolas, Kev was Aragorn and Vonne Mei was the Ring Bearer). I will never forget that day, it was that amazing.

But I was hurting for a good 48 hours after. I could still feel my legs shaking a couple of days later — again, almost like a marathon run.

Anyway, now back and working the Esquire article on the Army and Marines. Have 500 pages of transcript (27 interviews) and notes I'm working my way through now. I may be writing as early as tomorrow but doubt it. Still, I must finish first draft by 27th or Warren will kill me. Issue started shipping out to printer's already, that's how late I am working this one. But hell, I just got all the interviews back from the transcribers yesterday, so the delay was unavoidable.

But it will make for a busy Xmas. Good thing I got Vonne something very nice!