The Great Outdoors

Out annual family hike this year was a little different. I couldn’t attend on the initial weekend, so Tee and Uncle Roger had to trek it alone the weekend before. Luckily for me, Troy could make it either and I was able to convince Harvest that she wanted to hike up the mountain, since she had never done it before. My morning began at ten to 4 after a frantic night of trying to get my sister navigate the correct way to my house after an evening of babysitting, then getting all the needed supplies to take us up and back down the mountain. I always stress out that I’m going to forget some necessity and we’re all going to be miserable the whole time because of it, maybe I channel my inner Jewish mother, but I make sure I pack everything I think we could possibly need. Because of this, I end up with a heavy load, but we always have snacks and TP.
We were just in time to pick up some Carl’s Jr for breakfast and head south to the 2nd tallest peak in the state. Since Troy was driving we were worried that we would take a wrong turn off in one of the mountain roads. It was also getting closer to dawn, and the parking lot is always insane. But lady Luck was with us, as we took the right turns and the parking lot was pretty dead. We easily found a spot and got ready to start. It was pretty cold, maybe in the 50s and still dark while we started.
We planned on getting as far as we could before we needed to turn back, Troy wanted to be home by 3, I wanted to be home as soon as we felt accomplished. The goal was the meadow, which is over half way to the top. We hiked hard and I’m a bit surprised, but I was the one dragging, but of course I didn’t want to be the one to slow us down too far, it wasn’t terrible, but I can see that my hour workouts weren’t enough to prepare me for an all day hike. I was huffing and puffing and my muscles burned. But we got up to the “sun line” where we finally got to hike in the sun, just before we got to the meadow around 10. We felt good and it seemed like it hadn’t been too difficult, so we pushed for the saddle, the point where you reach the crest of the mountain before you hike to the peak. You get a spectacular view of the whole valley. It’s especially nice with all the autumnal colors coming through. We had made it there about 11, since it was conference weekend a few people had their radios and while we couldn’t really hear it, it was almost like we were listening to it. Troy tried to talk us into going that last half mile up to the peak, but even if we weren’t trying to be fast, Harvest wasn’t doing so good with the height we were at, and the last stretch is so much higher and scarier, I thought letting harvest wait until next year would be a good idea.
We decided to hike back to the meadow for lunch, since we had all that extra time. Down was so much easier at first. I was cheerful, I smiled and talked to those hiking up the mountain, because in my mind, I was done. I got less cheerful, really fast. Time stretches so much longer on the way down. Parts of the trail that weren’t there before show up on the way down. I was lucky that my knees and ankles held up, but the bottom of my feet were killing me. We ran out of water, we weren’t sure how much further until the end, we were getting close but it still could have been another 30 minutes of hiking. We stopped and put some mole skin on Harvest’s blisters with this in mind. We were all thirsty and hoping to get a drink from the spigot at the bottom. After getting moving again, around the next corner and we see the end (really the beginning) of the trail. It was just after 2:30. We made it! Another year down and now I know what I should do to prepare for next year.
Things we talked about along the trail:
How you can eat mold because it’s too warm for it to survive in your body. But I disagree with that since everyone on House always is dying from rare spores.
If you plan random seeds throughout your garden, not only will it grow better, but it will also prevent weeds from growing.
Troy’s kids like to wonder about things being numbered a google-plex.
Harvest is really afraid of heights.
Running along the trail may or may not be easier then walking it.
Skiing down the glacier is a fast way down the mountain, but some of us may be too chicken to ever try it (Hey! I like my bones all in one piece!)