Thankful

So Rachel had mentioned doing a sunrise hike in her plans and I was skeptical. The idea of waking up at 4:15am did not sound appealing. I told Rachel the biggest thing I was nervous about was not having energy for the rest of Thanksgiving day. And I kept trying to persuade her to let me sleep in a little longer. I figured it wouldn’t make that big a difference if I could sleep an extra 15 minutes.

Quote from Rachel “15 minutes makes a big difference. And if you’re already waking up that early to see the sunrise, you don’t want to take a chance and miss it”. So I set my alarm.

We were out the door with all our gear. We had packed the night before - head lamps, spikes, water, extra socks, warm jacket and water proof pants and coffee in a thermos and snacks. We got to the base of the mountain and the light from the moon lit the path, but we still needed our head lamps. It was also helpful to have our spikes. We agreed it took less energy because you weren’t slipping each step.

I also told Rachel she had to remind me to drink water so we took breaks often. And my heart was pumping. It was a steep incline, and even though it was only two miles it was taking us a while.

Then we started to see some orange peeking through the trees as we got closer to the top. It gave us the adrenaline we needed to keep going as we got more excited for what was to come. We could already tell it was going to be beautiful.

I kept asking if we were almost there. Rachel suggested we don’t play that game too early or else you get disappointed. And she was right because the last leg was the steepest incline. The sunrise was beautiful, but I had to keep myself from looking down the mountain because it made my heart sink.

Rachel was 100 feet ahead of me and I heard her scream “you’re almost there!” And finally had made it!

And it’s hard to put to words what we saw. It was perfect timing, just before the sunrise so we watched the pink and orange peek out and the colors fill the sky. I honestly think that right before we saw the actual sun was the best part. And the pink glowed off the mountains on the other side. We sat at the edge, taking pictures, drinking coffee and eating breakfast.

We made a few friends that came up after us. We asked one man what time he left and found out he was only 20 minutes behind us. But even he said he missed the best part because the sun was already up. I guess I have to give it to Rachel, 15 minutes does make a difference.

After sitting and getting a little cold we decided to hike back down. It went a LOT faster this time. Hour and 15 minutes up and 30 minutes down. I also decided I was only going to look at my next step because I was afraid I would slip and go all the way down the mountain. But it was pretty cool to get comfortable with the shoes and spikes and realize what they could do and how they could hold you.

Made it down and ready to eat some turkey. We had a lovely Friendsgiving and a 20lb turkey we cooked! Full and thankful.