CHAPTER SIXTEEN
The journey back through the jungle wasn’t quite as onerous as the trek in had been, but going downhill over slippery rocks presents its own hazards, so progress was slow. Conroy allowed us a fifteen-minute breather when we got back to the beach, but then he led a punishing pace on the trail. We’d passed the two-mile limit for anyone without a permit, so we no longer shared the trail with day-hikers.
After leaving the beach, the trail climbed eight hundred feet in the first mile. And then it went downhill again, and with heavy packs, this was the usual trial for hips and knees. Sometimes the trail pinched its way between steep rock faces, and at other times we followed switchbacks where the trail went up and over those knife edges we’d seen in the distance, and then back
