The view in the morning. It was beautiful but...
...cold and windy.Friday, March 21
In our food group of four (Lisa, Cam, Tyler and myself) we had oatmeal for two breakfasts. Well… we ate it all Friday morning. The wind howled all night, which also prevented me from sleeping, and it was no better in the morning. We struggled to take our tent down in it. Bundled up, we prepared to hike. Thinking the wind would be better if we weren’t on top of a mountain, I figured we’d be heading down as soon as possible. Not so. I followed Ramsey and Jacapo, our fearless leaders, up the mountain. The wind literally blew me over three times. Three!! Twice, it was just funny because the hill wasn’t that steep and come on--people falling over like bowling pins in a 40 lb pack is just funny. The third time however, wasn’t humorous at all because I was on a mountain peak! It was so windy. We marched up and over the highest peak of the mountain which was cool but frightening in that wind! Words can not even describe it. Cameron physically pulled Lisa and I down to the ground at one point, insisting that it was too dangerous for us to walk. So… we crawled up the mountain for a while.
In our food group of four (Lisa, Cam, Tyler and myself) we had oatmeal for two breakfasts. Well… we ate it all Friday morning. The wind howled all night, which also prevented me from sleeping, and it was no better in the morning. We struggled to take our tent down in it. Bundled up, we prepared to hike. Thinking the wind would be better if we weren’t on top of a mountain, I figured we’d be heading down as soon as possible. Not so. I followed Ramsey and Jacapo, our fearless leaders, up the mountain. The wind literally blew me over three times. Three!! Twice, it was just funny because the hill wasn’t that steep and come on--people falling over like bowling pins in a 40 lb pack is just funny. The third time however, wasn’t humorous at all because I was on a mountain peak! It was so windy. We marched up and over the highest peak of the mountain which was cool but frightening in that wind! Words can not even describe it. Cameron physically pulled Lisa and I down to the ground at one point, insisting that it was too dangerous for us to walk. So… we crawled up the mountain for a while.
Ok, if you look closely at the above picture, you can see us walking along the edge of the mountain. About where we're walking, is where we camped. See the tallest peak of the mountain in the picture? That's the one we decided to walk up and over.
Remember that peak? There it is.Once we started down the other side of the peak, the wind died down a little bit. We also found that the best way to get down the mountain was to get on your backside, put your feet up and slide. Effective--and fun. When Green lake and the hut came into sight, Cameron, Tyler and I just wanted to be there so we started down the mountain. The rest of the group took a different--and smarter--way down. We picked our way through a creek all the way down to the bottom. As we tramped/slid, I expected the hut to appear closer. It didn’t happen. At one point, I was pretty convinced that it was a mirage. That and the lack of trail by that point had driven me to utter frustration. Cameron was leading our small group of three and I started yelling at him to stop going around the mountain and just go down the mountain at one point. I just wanted it to flatten out--and it wasn’t happening! Finally, it was flat but every other step through the waist high tufts of grass landed my foot in a mud hole. By that time, all three of us trudged along in frustrated silence, willing the hut to get closer. Finally, we made it. It was only about 2pm. We had lunch and then--played cards. All day. It was surprisingly fun. And SO great to just sit around in the warm hut. It also started pouring about 20 minutes after we got to the hut. What luck! It rained pretty much all night too. The hut kept getting more and more crowded as the night progressed. There were three people there before we arrived. The hut only sleeps twelve. When bedtime rolled around, there were over 30 people in the hut!! A few pitched tents and we stuffed nine of us on the top bunk. A few of the boys slept outside.
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