It was 3:45am, my alarm was buzzing, and i only got five hours of sleep that night.
By the time we got to the starting point of our hike, it was about 6-o-clock, and about 40 degrees. I was freezing and so tired.
The "short" hike up to tree-line was--what I thought at the time--difficult. About two hours long. But past tree-line, the "long" hike, was just crazy.
I had never been so cold and so exhausted that much in my life, but with the first sighting of the peak, I pushed on.
The view I must say, was just beautiful. I took so many pictures. But then...I dropped my camera. Fortunately just on the trail, not over the side, but it did get scratched-up. And i had only had it for a couple weeks!
So anyways, back at the ranch... We had a thousand feet to go, about an hour hike, and a storm came.
It was thundering through the sky and in about thirty minutes it would have been over us. We had a crisis on our hands--continue on, or go back.
Well, my friends, family, people who remember me when i was just "sooo wittle and sooo cute!!!" that i have no idea who you are, we decided to go back. I know, I know. Not very exciting. But I must say I was happy with the choice we made. You see, about five minutes from the bottom it started to rain, then poor. So if we would have decided to go to the top we would have had to make a really long and wet hike down for about an hour. Good decision I think.
So all-in-all it was fun--for the most part--and really cool--both ways--but I don't think I would hike up that same trail again. Definitely some other less difficult and not as long hikes. But who knows? Maybe I'll end up climbing all of the 14ers. Who knows....
~Layne
