Day 7 - a forgotten event

I forgot to add something that happened near the end of Day 7. Temple #21 was at the top of a very steep mountain, but there were stairs on the way up, at least for most of the way. Just before reaching the main gate, the Henro Trail followed about 500 meters of the paved road leading to the temple grounds. This was one of the steepest roads I have ever seen. The slope was at least 45 degrees in places. Going up was bad but coming back down was worse.

On the far side of the temple there was a touristy area and it offered an alternate way of getting to and from the temple. There is a cable car going down to the valley floor. Apparently most visitors arrive and leave via this mechanized route. Ian and I had decided that we were going to walk, so after chanting the Heart Sutra, we started down that same paved road. As we struggled down this precipitous slope, Ian and I were discussing whether or not we would be able to reach the hotel before dark. If we could not, it could have become a serious problem since it was extremely cloudy, with a very light misty rain, and we had no lights other than small key-chain flashlights.

We were part way down the road when all of a sudden Ian disappeared and then I felt a strong bang on my back. At first I had no idea what had happened. Then it slowly dawned on me. I was lying flat on my back. Apparently I had stepped on the wet metal cover of a drain that crossed the road and, because of the steepness of the road, my foot shot out in front of me and I went over backwards. Luckily I was wearing my backpack and it absorbed most of the shock and kept my head from hitting the pavement.

This was the only time that either Ian or I had any sort of serious accident and this one caused no damage, except to my pride. However, it did take about 5 minutes for all of my muscles to decide to work together again.

As you know, we reached the hotel just as it began to get dark - another 15 minutes and we would not have been able to see the road.