I can Do Hard Things. Chapter 36- Hike Around "R" Mountain.

I've decided my life can be divided into stories of how it's a joke. Example? This story.

So it all started when my cousin Jake invited us on a hike to our resident "mountain", R mountain. I told Brandon about it and we decided it would be fun. Hike up the mountain, down the mountain, the end right?

WRONG.

At the beginning of the hike, I was drinking my water all the time because I was thinking, "Ok, I can wait to get home to drink more water, we're almost done." We reached the top, and I sat down. The rest of the group (minus Jake kind of and Brandon) had left us in the dust, literally. So I was left gasping for air and feeling very much how out of shape I was. I did take some pictures though, because the view was pretty cool.

 I liked the butterfly.

 So tough.

 So dead!

As soon as I sat down, though, the rest of the group said, "Ok, we're just going to swing over to the R and see some volcanic ash that's there!" Swing by... yep. I thought that meant like 20 minutes out of our way, and walk to the volcanic ash. THROUGH volcanic ash, mind you. I could smell it everywhere.

Pretty soon, we were once again left in the dust, and hiking through the wildlife. We were NOWHERE near a path, and I have plenty of scratches to prove it.

We passed a hawk's nest, and that was pretty cool. Probably the wildlife highlight of the day.

(Those little white fluffy things are the babies.)

Once we got to the "R", it was time to go down. How did we get down? We skied. It was pretty funny, but also pretty scary.

 The hill that we slid down.

 Still dead!

Ah yes, we finally found the Holy Grail. THIS was what we were looking for! Was I excited? Not in the slightest. We had been walking in volcanic ash for quite some time, and my shirt smelled like sulfur to prove it.

We got some pictures, and the geologist in our group finally got some samples of the substance that would obviously save all mankind. That must have been his purpose, otherwise I'm not quite sure why we were dragged around the mountain.

We had hiked exactly halfway around the mountain to find this magical ash, and so we had to hike EXACTLY halfway around the mountain to get back. And this time, it was uphill back. We had hiked uphill to get to the top, and it was uphill back. I thought that only happened in stories!

I fell quite a few times on my way back, and was seriously upset that we had been dragged around here. Not to mention that the group totally left us again and we were left to fend for ourselves through rocks and once again not anywhere near the path. Thank goodness for Jake, for making sure we knew where we were going, and for Brandon who didn't leave me the whole time. He knew that it was his job to keep me going, because I certainly wasn't going to make sure I kept going.

When we got home, Brandon let me go to Horkley's and get a big cup of Coke to celebrate. It was really what I needed, and I was much more happy. My poor shoes though, are another story.

The brown used to be navy blue. I'm trying to keep my hopes up that they're washable and not completely ruined.

On the way home, I found out that Brandon and I got some serious sun. I asked before we let if we needed a hat or sunscreen, and Brandon said we'd be fine. I took a picture of my face to make fun of my sunburn, and apparently it's funny to some people.

Poor face!

So how do I feel about this hike? Well, now that I'm over it, it was quite the experience. I can now do a hard hike and push my body to it's actual physical limit. I was SO tired, and so ready to give up. Unfortunately, giving up was not an option because nobody could get me off that mountain except myself. So yes, I'm proud of myself for this dang hike! The fact that I completed it is amazing, and I know that I can do it again if I was tortured my life was at stake. And I lost a few pounds from that exercise so woohoo!