Death by hiking..

So, all week I've been getting texts and facebook messages from my friends saying "Come hike Mt. Timp with us on Saturday at 1:00 in the morning! meet at the high school!" And I'm like...that's a 16 mile hike. YEAH right.

Friday morning: I'm going to do it. I'm definitely not in shape to do so, but I'm going to anyway.
Friday night: mama calls my cell phone around 11:00, informs me that there should be lightening storms, so I can't go anymore.
Saturday at 12:59 a.m: mama changes her mind on account of the weather being super duper clear.

So I pack my backpack with 4 water bottles,
a jacket, and a flash light,
and I head to the high school to meet everyone.
And then we're on our way!

The first two hours of the way up were perfectly fine; how every hike should be. The mountain was reasonably level, it wasn't too steep, and I could still breathe just fine! I laughed and joked with my friends, tripped on rocks in the pitch dark, and was having a really great time. That was the first two hours. The last two hours...that's a different story. I mean. I was still having a great time the whole way. And it was doable. But it was DIFFICULT. Especially the really steep parts..and the track girls in our group basically running up the mountain, pushing the rest of us not to stop. okay. but anyway. we FINALLY get to the top! And we're there and it's so surreal to have actually made it and I'm all thinking "wow. I can now actually say that I have hiked Mt. Timp!"

At this point it is about 4:45 in the morning. So we have to sit up there for a bit and wait for the sun to rise. And all of the sudden I realize that it is SOO cold. Unbearably cold. and it was windy up there too! So a couple of us hide behind a rock so that the wind can't exactly catch us, but we were still freezing, practically to death. Matthew and I sat under Jordan's rain pancho shivering out guts out for about 45 minutes before that sun began to rise. {surprisingly, the pancho helped a ton.}
And when the sun finally did rise, it was a very beautiful sight indeed.


And then it was time to head back down. Which is supposed to be the fun part, right? wrong. It took FOREVER to get down, and we were even booking it! like..running at times. The other half of our group was 45 minutes behind the rest of us, and I still felt like it was taking forever. Every time I thought we had finally reached the bottom, it just kept going down some more. By this time my legs were like jello. They were not used to this sort of treatment. When we finally DID reach the bottom, it was the happiest sight of all.

and Now here I am. 2:00 on Saturday afternoon. Living off of no sleep, having hiked 16 miles all night long. But I did it. Just. ha. I feel so cool. and it was super fun, and I'm way glad I did it. Even though I AM dying now.

I love my little friends.

I'm just hoping I didn't get Matt's pink eye.. ..........

I will never hike you again, Timp. But I am glad I did it once.
-Kalynn.