"This should be a breeze" I arrogantly replied to my husband a mere 12 hours before the blow photo was taken.
You see, seven years ago I hiked my first mountain ever: Longs Peak. A 15 mile, 12 hour hike to the top of Rocky Mountain National Park's tallest mountain... and I finished it in 10.
So obviously, a 3.8 mile hike to the top of Mt. Democrat should be cake - even if I was four months pregnant.
Ah what a ride I was in for.
Unlike Longs Peak, which was mostly gradual, Mount Democrat was, in my personal opinion, the same as climbing the stairs to the top of the Sears Tower 10 times: straight, never ending up.
I was joined by my parents, my husband, and my darling two year old. Of us five, three had absolutely no interest in waking up at the crack of dawn to climb a mountain. And they made that abundantly clear for the first two hours. You'll figure out who that was shortly.
After literally carrying my 25lb toddler up the face of a mountain for an hour, I was dying. "THIS...SUCKS" I panted to my husband - who never had, and never will, any interest in hiking mountains.
His reply? "Yup. I hate this. I'm turning around with T and going back to bed. See you later." My mother, without hesitation, joined them.
So there we were. A 60 year old father and Illinois native, and a 27 year old pregnant woman with only one mountain under her belt dogging their way up. Now that it was just us two, we decided to go for the entire 7.6 mile loop that consisted of 3 other 14ers (Mt. Cameron, Mt. Lincoln, Mt. Bross), because why not?!
Fast forward to hour four, of what should be a 5 hour round trip hike, and we are NOT at the top🤦♀️yikes.
After a very unexciting summit, we rest, soak in the views, look at each other and laugh knowing this is the ONLY mountain we are tackling today.
Being that we are a crew comprised of a mildly in shape older man from the midwest, and a pregnant woman with bad knees, you would think we would exhibit caution and focus as we made our descent down the VERY steep and rocky terrain.
But no... with no strength or coordination left (and maybe a touch of oxygen deprivation) our hamstrings burning and knees buckling, we stumble our way back down like a couple of drunk college kids - and probably giggled as much. We tripped over our feet, tumbled to our knees more than a few times, each time getting more hilarious.
"I would climb Longs Peak fifteen times before I would climb that again!"
And I stand by that.
