I hiked a mountain!!!!

Ok, so again it has been a little while since I wrote.  The last month has been busy with overtime at work, a fabulous trip to NYC with my buddies, and other fun end of the summer activities.  Unfortunately my PC is on the fritz, so until I invest in a new one I'll have to chicken peck on my iPad. #firstworldproblems. But on a psychological level, I want to tell you that I have improved. I am not 100%, but I am doing better. I am so thankful that I now have more mental energy to carry on in my life, and my bikram practice has improved tremendously. I am now the person in the front row who everyone watches!  It has been so nice to focus on my life and making it more awesome.  It goes without saying that I would be unable to be in this improved metal state without all of your help!



Anyway, this weekend I hiked Mt Washington, which is the highest peak in the Northeast.  The plan to do this hatched at the end of July.  My friend Matt (who is Mr. Nature) and I had just gone for a hike in Charlottesville and I suggested we try hiking Mt Washington. We agreed to go over Labor Day. However the next day I actually googled what this entailed and became terrified!!! In case it is not clear, I am not an experienced hiker, and Mt Washington has the reputation for having the worst weather in the world.  People have died climbing it! But after trying to back out of it with Matt, he assured me I would be fine despite that it is considered a moderate to difficult hike.  I probably should have found steps to walk up or other ways to train for this hike, but I just blindly decided to increase my bikram and hope for the best!  



After buying hiking boots and a daypack (while remaining skeptical of the value of both) I boarded the train to Albany to meet Matt.  We didn't get to New Hampshire until after midnight. We woke at 6am and traveled over to the mountain.  Once we got on the trail, it was flat and wooded to begin with, and I was feeling good.  There were a few rocks to climb up/over, but I was doing good!  So much so that Matt made me slow down so as to save my energy.  After probably the 8th rock climb, I was huffing and puffing and Matt made me take a break.  Somehow after that there were a gazillion more of these rocks piles  to climb up, with only one pretty waterfall in the middle. 

I think my low point was near the top of the waterfall when we had to walk over these mossy rocks.  At this point I was using walking poles to balance myself, and there was a group of us that had lost the trail.  We were all trying to get through this crevice and up the trail but it was covered in moss and I fell HARD on my butt, poles flying.  I decided to ditch the poles, and I was rather unkind to Matt when he realized that all of our difficult walking on moss was in vain and we had to turn around.  This was quite unpleasant and was followed by 15 more of these huge rock piles to climb up.  I remember turning to Matt and barely whispering "I need you to tell me that we are almost there, and I need you to mean it".  It should be noted that Matt had been saying "we're almost there" for the past half hour.  We eventually realized that we had a 'failure to communicate' because "almost there" to him meant we had less than a mile. Right......
I finally saw the cabin which was our stoping point next to the Lake of the Clouds.  After a few more minutes of hiking, we finally got there.  I ate for the first time all day, and we assessed what the rest of the hike entailed.  We were essentially 3/4 of the way to the top, and I could see the flags in the distance.  It was only .7 miles up, but there was a lot of walking on loose rocks.  I felt my body fading after the first .3, but I kept pressing on (albeit with more breaks).  At this point, the trail was somewhat more crowded, and other people besides Matt kept saying "you're almost there!" but I was barely able to look at them.  I was out of water and mentally drained.  I kept telling myself it was only five flights of stairs or less in height we had to go, and FINALLY we made it to the top!

I was too tired to celebrate at that moment, and was somewhat overwhelmed with the sudden crowd of people at the top.  Most of these people had either driven or taken the train up, not hiked.  Once I was able to get more water, I felt better.  We went to the gift shop and I bought a t-shirt that said "this body climbed Mt Washington" which I plan to wear.  Frequently.  We were able to get a private tour of Mt Washington's weather station, which is manned 24/7, with the weather being tracked hourly.  They showed us the tracking of the strongest wind (something like 200 mph) and other crazy pressure readings.  We got to go to the top of the weather station and I got to stand at the highest point in the Northeast, among the weather vanes :)

After our tour we took some pictures, and toured the museum while we waited for the train down.  I had wanted to be able to hike the 4 miles back to base, but Matt told me that this is somehow harder than going up because it can hurt your knees.  By this point my legs felt like jelly and my body was sore all over.  All I wanted was a shower and to climb in bed!  So we took the train down, grabbed dinner, and went back to the hotel. 

The next day we headed to Boston where I got to see my longtime friend Natalie.  Since she was still at work we were able to do some of the Freedom Trail after breakfast. We saw Fanuiel Hall, the site of the Boston Massacre, the Old State House, Kings Church, the site of Benjamin Franklin's grave site, and his statue. We were not able to really explore a lot of these places as we were on a schedule to meet Natalie, and a lot of the places wouldn't let you in without paying. Bummer. I had an awesome time hanging out with Natalie, and it was an awesome trip over all!!!