Hike 'O Death

So, I was sitting at church one Sunday when my friend Dave asked what I was doing Tuesday night. He then proceeded to invite me on an overnight hike he was thinking of doing. Since my friend Katie was in town and we were kinda thinking about going to Yosemite that week - we thought this might be a good alternative since the thought of doing half dome just about scared us.

Of course the weather called for rain on Tuesday....and so Dave asked if we still wanted to go. Thinking I was tough and could handle a little rain - convinced the rest that we should still do it rain or shine.

Well - rain it did and hike we did.

We left Palo Alto about 2 hours later than planned (I've since learned that means "on-time" for Dave). We had a fun car ride down to Big Sur - sharing frostys, chatting it up, and being forced to listen to a chapter of Dave's book on tape (we squashed that pretty quick).

We got to the place we needed to be and started our Hike around 8pm - just as it was getting dark. Perfect. Dark and Rain. And 11 miles of fun ahead of us. Yep - we hiked 11 miles that night. I made the huge mistake of wearing my chacos ( sandals that I was informed are good for hiking - totally false). You'll see evidence of this later.

Ready for it! (or so I thought).

I was exhausted by about mile 8 and wanted to die at about mile 9-ish. I'm proud to say that I didn't complain and just sucked it up (and when you see the evidence of my feet you'll understand that that was impressive!

We finally got to camp at about 1am! (Right after hiking through a freezing cold river i might add). oy. We set up our tents, ate our dinner, and went to sleep (well - they all went to sleep...I lay down, eyes wide open, and finally fell asleep around 5am!)

Dave and Me

The next morning we had some delicious oatmeal for breakfast and headed to the hotsprings (the reason we came to this location). They were nice and hot. But a little small. We relaxed for a little while and then made our way back to our tents, packed up and hiked out (Another 11 miles!)

The hike was WAY better in the light, without the rain, and with wearing running shoes! It was like a whole different hike actually.

Me with Katie and Ryan

It was nice to be able to see everything around us. There were all these waterfalls that we couldn't see the night before. And the trees and wildflowers were beautiful.

Was the hike worth it? Yes. Would I do it again? Not in the rain and never wearing those stupid sandals. But it was definitely worth all the memories! Overall I had an awesome time.

Oh..and sorry this next picture is kind of gross....but now you can see why I was impressed that I didn't complain. My feet were torn up. I couldn't wear shoes for 2 weeks after that hike. I could only wear flip flops. My feet were swollen and those cuts were deep. I still have scars from it 2 months later.

I learned a lot from this hike. 1 - Always listen to Dave (he told us exactly what to bring/wear, etc.) and 2 - Don't voluntarily go in the rain. Dumb idea.