As always your scenery is breathtaking.

There is an old hiking story, not so new, yet you may get a kick out of it.

It was during my time of teaching english as a foreign language with the TOEFL system in Tehran, Iran back in the late 70s. To the north of Tehran are the Caspian mountains which has the Caspian Sea on the other side. The mountains are a nice get away from the city, which at the time had the feel of Montreal in size and bustle. We thought it a good idea to take some LSD along and took a bus as far north as the city transit went and then started hiking into the hills.

Once out of residential areas we thought it was a good idea to take the LSD and enjoy the walk.

Up we trekked up one particular valley which was very arid and by that time of day very hot. We found one lonely tree to find some reprieve in the shade for a time. Then gazing north it seemed that the peak of this climb was not much further on.

It was not. A short time later we were at the peak looking down into a lush green valley below with an actual water fall on the other side. We both saw it so it wasn't just me tripping. My French friend, who had been born near the Alps in France, said, "We must go down."

And so we did. It was not mentioned but my attire was mostly Indian cottons, the white cotton pants and top. My French friend started giving instructions on how to continue as we descended. It was during this period when it was discovered that he was an Alps climber when home and we were way past my safety zone... the LSD not helping matters at this point.

The long and the short of it was that we made it to the lush valley's floor yet the ass of my Indian cottons had been ripped asunder. My French friend explained that when climbers are scared the first thing to hit the ground is their ass. A good climber uses all four extremities to keep the ass off the ground.

It was a bad choice to head out on a climb under the influence of LSD without checking to see if your companion is a qualified mountain climber, yet a good choice was made when we came to the water falls. My French friend thought it a good idea to take a shower under it. My LSD induce brain had visions of a fellow pissing in it upstream.

Sure enough my French friend came down with jaundice not long after the hike while there was no sign of it shown by me.