the almost top

This past weekend Dave and I were going about our usualness on Saturday, when out of the blue Dave suggested a trip to Santa Barbara. It went something like this.

Dave "Let's go to Santa Barbara"
Me "When?"
Dave "Now!"

Cut to 4 hours later and us arriving in Santa Barbara after taking a jaunt in the Datsun up the coast. Dave had done some brief (note the term brief will come into play later in the post) concerning hikes in the hills (note the term hills will come into play later in the post) above Santa Barbara. On the drive up to the hiking trail we saw an donkey or two.
After successfully locating a space to park the Datsun, off road, we packed our bag (note packing of bag will come into play very soon in the post) and headed off on the trail marked as 7 Falls. Dave had read briefly that the trail had a swimming pond located along it and we both were looking forward to the swim. The first mile or two was an easy jaunt, and we ran into several families and hikers that appeared to be glistening with a fresh dip in a pool. After a few forks in the trail and turns that seemed questionable, the hike grew slightly steeper. I was pretty thirsty and asked Dave for the water out of the bag. Dave informed me he'd left the water in the car because it seemed warm. Hmm.

After continuing along the trail for a while longer we happened along a couple in swimsuits. Good sign I was thinking. They informed us there were pools for swimming all the way at the top. Hmm.

Cut to 30min. later and me scaling over large boulders dangling from the edge of a cliff. Ok maybe not dangling, but there was definitely steep hills-acting-as mountains involved. And there was most certainly a cougar or a puma involved although Dave claims to not have seen it.He was too busy smiling through the pain of a water-less hike. Dave being the good eagle scout set a time limit before we should turn back. We climbed on and on and on until I really thought I was going to touch the sky.
We were at the almost top when Dave decided it was time to head back down. On the way down we ran into a man with pythons for arms and whole steers for legs. He informed us the trail was a 'gnarley workout' . The Catherdral Peak trail corrected us... and the almost top was a mere 3000' in the air.