Whew! Please send prayers Weston's way as he's going through the admittance process for his paramedic program again!  He's doing really well in school, had great reference letters & a strong application.  He did well on his assessment & now has the interview left next week, but there is a lot depending on his acceptance into the January class. This has been the program class we're hoping for! I'm so proud of him & he has worked so hard, so now our fingers, toes & eyes are crossed that he'll be readmitted for the January program!  :) I love that guy!

We were on top of the world!

This weekend we hiked Timp. Yes it is a 7.5mi (one way) trail. So 15 miles. Well, the trailhead parking lot we wanted was closed so we parked at another trailhead that was 3 mi from our trailhead & hiked that additional distance. 

The grand total we hiked on Saturday was 21 miles.  We had over 1 mile incline and 1 mile decline in elevation throughout our hike. It was exhausting & so fun! Seriously all that hard work payed off. Sunday we managed to roll out of bed, waddle to church & waddle back home & pass out on the air mattress.  We didn't move again till bedtime that night.

I'm not sore anymore except the tendons by my ankles are a little sore, but other than that I have fully recovered! Miraculous! :)

We started our hike at 11a.m.

We just kept plugging & chugging along the trail. 

After our 3 mi hike to the T.H. I was thinking...oh goodness....what did I get myself into? We had probably hiked .5 miles into the timp trail when we passed 3 teenage boys. I said "Uh...are we close" One replied, "Mmm...I have to be completely honest...you're not anywhere close."  Shoot, not the answer I was looking for, I think I was excited for a magical escalator to have been installed  overnight.  That wasn't the case.  So we kept plugging along & Wes gave me the idea to instead ask people how the hike was instead of asking them how close we were. That helped me turn my frown upside down! Everyone kept saying, it's tough, but worth it! Seems a lot of things in life go that way. Dangit.

So we continue to hike. & hike. & hike. & hike. & didn't stop until about 3.5 hrs into it when we breaked for lunch. Yum. We had made trailmix on our date the night before to bring on our hike! That was our saving grace to add to our sandwiches & apple slices for lunch (& dinner as it turns out).  Earmuffs for you weirdos that get grossed out by medical stuff.  We kept plugging along & then we ran into the obgyn I've been working with on all my uterus issues. So, funny. It's the same dr. we ran into at church when we lived at Branbury.  It is just an awkward moment seeing those kind of people outside of the normal situation...

Then he gave us some heads up of how much time left to the summit, terrain, etc. It was fun to chat.

Then again we plugged on. Up & up.  It seemed to go forever. But we were having so much fun chatting & Weston is such a He-Man and hiked 2.5 gallons of water & I'm pretty sure my teency CamelBack carries maybe 2.5 qts? ha So he refilled me every so often!  We made it up to the meadow & then we saw the looming peak. Good golly it was huge & it was getting harder for me to breathe bc of the elevation. Weston's body, being the machine it is, adjusted fine & he was not struggling for oxygen. Maybe it's my body being a little pathetic! So we took  it slower & we began to take the trails along the hilly meadows & then we made it over to the mountain wall & began those switchbacks. Goodness, they were getting steeper & steeper. I started realizing my little fear of heights was a little more than little.  Then we made it to the saddle. I just laid on my belly when we reached the rock. I did not want to move. I thought I was going to throw up. I'm not sure if that was from the elevation or the heights were freaking me out.  I started to cry telling Weston I couldn't take the creepy steep trail to the summit. He said he wouldn't be mad if I couldn't do it. But then I was bugged, I'd just hiked 10 miles. There was only half a mile to the summit. I was not hiking 20 miles to not do 1 mile of creepy steepness to reach the summit. So I decided to do it & I put my hands up like blinders on a horse & just started hiking. With a few melt-downs along the way we finally summited! It was such a good feeling! & a terrifying one. I hated being on top of that mountain the wind was blowing & I felt like any second it was going to just  change directions & knock me off the mountain. That is not my idea of a good time. So we took our celebratory pictures & I changed shirts into something warmer & we began our descent! Hallelujah!It was fun! We broke for dinner after crossing back over the meadows once we got back to the forested area! It was nummy & we're glad we didn't eat our whole lunch at lunch time or else we would have been doomed.  (We under estimated our hike aka didn't pack enough food.)

After dinner it was pretty dark so we popped our headlamps on & began trekking! The trail went for a ways & after hearing lots of wolves. Yes, wolves, not coyotes. Weston lit a stick on fire just so it was smoking bc he says it scares off animals. So that was our defense. Well, that & Weston's Buck knife.  & the occasional tree TRUNK Weston would pick up if he felt like there was an animal creepin on us.  At one point we were in the lower meadows & we heard galloping. We both stopped dead in our tracks & I stopped jibber jabbering. We looked over into the field & saw a hundred eyes. Not even kidding. & they all just started galloping away. It was deer. & it was so creepy. I was waiting for them to trample us bc they're dumb.  But they didn't & we survived to tell the tale. My mind went back to those wolves we'd heard earlier...It was perfect hunting grounds for them. We walked faster.

We finally made it off the Timpanooke trail & still had 3 miles to go. STRAIGHT uphill, too.  I just need to throw that out there, bc after 18 miles of hiking our final 3 miles were up-hill. It was the WORST part of the hike. It went forever & we weren't ever actually sure if we were on the right trail bc it branched off a couple times w/o any signs.... but we finally made it back to the car. The one thing that kept us plugging along was Jenna's birthday party. Seriously a couple times at the end I just wanted to curl up in a ball and be left for dead. But I could NOT miss Jenna's birthday party! It was from 10-11 We didn't make it back to the car till 10:30p.m. & we were still at least 30 minutes away from town, so we did miss her party, but we made it to her house late to at least show her our efforts! 

It was fun catching up w/ her for a minute! I love that Jenna friend of mine!

The night before after our 1 a.m. Walmart Trip.... Yuck, I have not done that in many a'moons.

 Starting out from the Summit Trail Trailhead 3mi to the Timpanooke T.H.

 Making our way up!

The fall colors were gorgeous!

 Essentially the trails we took!

 See, gorgeous colors!

 Still smiling!

 We made it to the first landing, we were so happy!

 It was really fun and a peaceful day out there!

 Catching a breather!

 Wondering if we're going to make it out of this hike alive...

 Seriously this was so fun...I'm pretty sure this is AFTER we ran into my female issues dr. on the mountain.

Awkward. Just kidding, he's not awkward; we are.

 On top of Timp! I could not even handle being up there!

I don't know if you can tell, but I am freaking out!

 He was so happy.

 Aw, tender.

 We had so much fun!

 Do I looked stressed?

 Saw another one of these buggers!

 On the saddle! That peak above my head not the one on the left, but in the center is where we climbed to. It's microscopic in this picture but there's a shack at the top, this is after we summited! I was freaking out the whole way there & the whole way back down to the saddle!  The wind was crazy!

 Just happy to be alive!

 Climbing back down from saddle.

 He's hawt.

 Feeling very accomplished!

 Dinner break!

This was our last picture taken but we were actually hiking till 10:30 that night!

xoxocheckthatoffmylist