Hiking up a Mountain

Thursday after work, Brian and I got into the car and drove to my aunt and uncle's house. We planned to go hiking with my uncle on Saturday.

Saturday morning we were up at the crack of dawn (5am) and packed up and headed to the mountain. The plan was to hike up the mountain then come back down the trail a little bit and take a side trail and hike a second mountain and then return to the bottom.

Brian all bundled up and ready to start the hike

At the base it was pretty cool and damp. The trail started out fairly easy and only slightly uphill. After about 30 minutes of walking/climbing the trail suddenly got very steep and stayed that way until the top. As we climbed, the landscape began to change. It transformed from a dense forest of hardwoods, to pine and birch trees. The temperature also started to decrease as we increased in elevation!

The start of the hilly climb.

Stopping to take a water break!

Before the final climb, which was on steep boulders, we put on our jackets as the temperature had dropped from 70F to 50F and the wind had picked up to almost 40mph. We scaled the top and could barely stand up because of the wind. It was actually pretty scary but the view was amazing!

A final stop to put on warm clothes before hiking to the top. You can see the rocky top in the background.

We climbed up the rocks to the top.

Brian and my Uncle sitting at the top trying to get out of the wind.

Very WINDY!!

We started to head down and took the side trail to the second mountain. This part added 1.4 miles to our trip. This trail was damp and slippery and made climbing hard and I was glad once we were done with that part. We reached the original trail and braked for lunch then headed back down.

The view from the second mountain. The mountain in the background is the one we had just climbed!

Total it took us about 5 hours to complete the whole hike with all the stops. We hiked two mountains with a total of 4000+ feet of elevation and a total of 6.2 miles! Sunday I woke up with slightly sore calves and hips.

Monday I went out for a shake out run and felt great! My legs are still a little sore but I am taking it super easy this week in preparation for the half!

Happy Labor Day!!