We Climbed a Mountain!

June 6-7, 2012

Wednesday –

I went for the now usual bike ride in the morning.   Missy was still too sore from her (mis)adventures from the day before.     After lunch, I went to town in search of some internet so I could look up some stuff.  I also needed to reset my phone, which hadn’t been working the past few days.  I had trouble finding a good spot in town where I got a good enough signal to do anything online.   Finally, I just drove all around town looking for any business that advertised wifi.  Not seeing any, I went to the Visitors Center.   Luckily, they said they had free wifi.  It wasn’t the best signal, but it worked.    I did finally get my phone reset, although I did have to call for technical assistance.  (Jeremiah).  I had wasted so much time trying to find the good stuff that it was dinner time when I got back.

Missy felt better after dinner, so she went for a bike ride.   She confirmed what I discovered on my morning ride: the bike is slipping gears on the hard pedals.   I did accidentally hit the shift with my knee the other day when I was getting off.  I know you’re not supposed to shift when not moving…did I break the bike?

After dinner, we went out and had ourselves a campfire.   We got out the travel scrabble and got a good game going.   Finally got chased inside by the cold around 9:15.

Thursday –

We climbed a mountain today!   We got started a little later than we wanted: leaving the house around 10:30.   It was thought that an earlier start would be better so we’d be hiking in the cool morning temps…but that’s what happens when you take forever to get packed up.   As we were parking our truck on a pull-off from the main road, we saw several jeeps and ATVs heading up the trail we would be taking.  (Loving that this hike is only a coupla miles from our campsite!!!)  We stopped for a beginning of the hike picture, and then started up.

At first, the going was great!   We kept a slow pace due to the extreme slope, and enjoyed all the awesome scenery.  For the first third of the hike, we were on one side of the mountain.   It was really neat to be able to track our upwards progress against the height of the opposing mountain.   That mountain had beautiful red stripes going up, so at the bottom had to crane our necks to see up.   At each switchback on that side, we’d be higher and higher up the red lines.   I thought it was such a fun way to keep track of progress.   You can’t do that on a horizontal hike in MN.  :-)

Missy was having a tough time breathing.   It wasn’t a fitness thing, or an altitude thing.   She said it was more like she developed adult-onset-asthma.   I felt bad for her, since I was feeling great.   I think we’ve completely assimilated to the high altitude.

As we made the hike and came to each successive switchback, we cursed the ranger.  The road was fine!  The hairpin turns all had pullouts, so even if the truck couldn’t make them (which we suspect the truck would have been fine), there was room to maneuver.   Grrrr.    For the first hour or two, we were gracious enough to forgive the ranger because it was such a nice hike and great exercise.   At the start of hour 3, we were back to cursing him.   And, we’d changed our minds about accepting help.   Back at the very start, I’d asked Missy what she’d do if someone drove up behind us and offered us a ride.  She said she would turn it down and enjoy the exercise.   By hour 3, I told Missy I wouldn’t turn down a ride from a couple of cute guys.    Missy replied that she wouldn’t turn down a ride from some Uggos.  

Towards the end of the hike, there are some serious switchbacks to get you up that last bit of mountain.   The scenery was amazing, as you probably saw from my picture post.   The actual lake, the grand prize at the end of the hike, was lame.   Just some mountain snow melting into a small pond in a mountain basin.   The best scenery was just at the edge of the timberline.   Next time (hah!  Like we’re doing that again).    Missy looked at Karen to see what our elevation was: 12,000 feet!    (Alright, I’ll be honest.  It was 11,950.   But since we COULD have walked up the hill at the basin side to gain the extra 50, we’re counting it!)   Oh- what’s your opinion on this:  When we came to the snow, I asked Missy if we should enter détente on throwing snowballs.   Missy said you can’t have détente without first having engaged in hostilities.   I disagreed, and we discussed it for the last bit of the hike.    What do you think?   I don’t think I’ll remember to google that the next time I have internet.

We spent about 15 minutes at Clear Lake before the increasing wind made it quite chilly, even with full sun.  When we started going down the mountain, I was shocked at how much it hurt.  My lower back hurt, my hips hurt, and my toes really hurt.  It helped a little bit that we still had great views, but for the most part the descent was a burden to be endured.   And there was no hope of a ride from an angel, since we knew no one was at the top to come behind us.   Sigh.   I think we were both shocked that it took so long getting down.  (4 miles one way, 2000 feet in elevation).   It was 3.5 hours up, and took 2.5 hours to get down.   I really had been thinking it would take about an hour and a half.   By the last ¼ of the hike, I was barely getting a millimeter clearance from each foot on each step.   It was quite an experience.   In the end, even with all the hurt, I’m glad we tackled the mountain.  If I had a bucket list, and if this was on the bucket list, I could cross it off!