...So I Can Stand on Mountains...

...you raise me up, to walk on stormy seas.

Yesterday, a friend of ours guided a hometown friend & me up Cupcake Mountain. It was really cool and really hard. And today I'm really sore! My quads are not anywhere near as sore as I thought they'd be, but my shoulders did not disappoint me and my calves & butt are very sore.

Here are some photos:

From the trailhead, we can't see our goal. At this point, we're aiming for the point just to the right of the mountain, about halfway. We'll be able to see Cupcake when we get around the corner. (It's just under the "T" in the writing.)

Our fearless leader the Scout Master --Some beautiful scenery. Scout Master kept saying, "You ain't seen nothin' yet!"

I stopped often to take pictures. It was also a really good chance to stop the burning in my quads and to stop sucking wind long enough to appreciate how quiet it was up there!

The next photo shows us just around the halfway (or so) point. We can now see Cupcake!

This is looking down on the halfway point. It's at the center left of the photo, just to the left of the rock formation.

I put 3 photos together (thanks Poppy) to give you a pretty good idea of our view.

Almost there!! It was a bit steep -- okay, my quads by this time are saying "you have GOT to be kidding me!" and other things I can't repeat. We're going up through the center of this photo and then through the crevice in the center & up to the top. Just to the left of the "V", where it's highest, is where we'll be!!

Here's an idea of the trail for the end of the climb. You may say, "Trail? I don't see any trail." I said that myself quite often. I was always looking down at the ground (even at the less dificult parts) because I trip & fall a lot, so I couldn't really concentrate on what was ahead. Or above.

I'll also add that I was happy with how I did as far as the whole fear of heights thing. The drive to the trail pretty much numbed me, so I think I was doing better by the time we started climbing.

I'm hoping to get Charles' photo from this place. It was really cool.

We made it!!!! Yahoo!! This is Charles & me at the summit. We stayed up here for awhile & had lunch. Scout Master said that it was his fastest ascent so far!
On the way down, my quads were still upset with me. Going downhill is hard on the quads too, and they had really had enough! I ended up on my butt a few times because the trail was steep and very rocky or gravelly. I felt like I was skiing sometimes! I've always told people that part of my fear of heights is because I'm so uncoordinated that I could slip and fall very easily.

What a great day we had! We were very tired and we knew that we'd be sore today, but it was all worth it. Scout Master was a wonderful guide and took a whole day to bring Charles & me on a great hike. The drive there took quite awhile too, part of it on a dirt, one lane "road." Yippee for the Trail Blazer! We asked Scout Master what would happen if someone were coming around the hill the other way. There wasn't really a good answer to that question. It was a very winding, mountain-y road. I let Scout Master drive that part :)

On a sad note, our friend Scout Master & his wife have sold their house and they'll be moving at the end of February! Not happy about that.

I'll also have to blog about our new "Challenge." Poppy, Juju, Bwin and I are doing the Body for Life 12 week challenge. Don't worry, I make Juju eat enough for Sizzle. She mostly wants to tone up. Yes, she makes we want to hurl. Did I say that out loud? We all took our before pix. Yikes-a-malooney! You won't be seeing that anytime soon. It's a very good eating program, very similar to the WW core program. You eat 5 to 6 small meals a day and do some really good workouts. The fun part is that one day is FREE. No workouts (okay, I'll probably still run with my group) and you eat what you want. Yehah! I'll keep you posted (pun intended) on our progress.

That's it for now!