during the 5th century, Patrick climbed to the top of “the Reek,” fasted for forty days and forty nights. at the end of the period, he rang a bell (or threw it off the peak, in some versions), knocked a she-demon from the sky and banished all the “snakes” from Ireland. there’s a chapel on the summit where they hold services on Reek Sunday, and on other occasions.
i’d already gone on two decent walks this day, and it was already about 4 pm when I arrived at the parking lot at the base of Croagh Patrick. but i’d driven all that way, so I thought I’d start walking and see how far I could get. my guide book recommended allowing three hours to get from the base to mountaintop chapel, and another two hours to get back down again. i knew i wouldn’t have enough time before the sun set to get up and back, starting at 4pm, but i thought i’d see how far i could get in an hour, before turning back around. an hour in, i was already about 2/3 of the way up, so i decided to keep going. made it up in a breathless and exhilarating two and a half hours, had good look at the views from the summit. the hour-long trip back down was rougher in a lot of ways — the whole “going down” strain on the quads. and the shifting scree was harder to predict on the way down, and my feet went straight out from under me at one point. thought i’d have a nice bruise on my tailbone the next day, but it turned out that the challenge of shifting (and walking) posed by my aching quads overwhelmed any soreness that might otherwise have occurred.
needless to say, i slept like a log that night. it was faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaantastic.
