I know I usually just post weekly recaps, but sometimes I feel like posting more recent stuff. XD
Last week Tess and I decided to get together a group of people to hike Twin Sisters, which looms behind the ranch. I've been meaning to hike it all summer, and between schedules not jiving for when other people were hiking, work, and just being plain intimidated, I never did. However, we have some people leaving in a few days and decided it was now or never. A sign-up sheet was posted under staff housing, we made the plans to wake up at 2:30 so we could be ready to leave by 3:15 at the latest, and by the time Friday rolled around we had 16 people committed to this endeavor.
Friday night I went to bed around 9:30, but woke up every half hour or so to check my watch in a panic. I have this weird mental thing every time I get ready to do something exciting or new that makes me nervous and think that I'm going to sleep in. The same thing happens right before a plane trip too. >.< There was a terrific thunderstorm around midnight, too, and I remember hearing it and thinking in a muddled way that maybe that meant we weren't going to be able to hike the next morning.
But, against all odds, I got up at 2:30 (actually 2:00, when someone over on guys' side was making a racket, and then again at 2:25 when my roommate's alarm went off) and met everyone down underneath staff housing. Our new photographer, Josiah (I'll give a more thorough introduction through pictures one of these days) had climbed it the previous morning and for some reason wanted to climb it again with us. O.o Our group consisted of Josiah, Darron, Chris, Tom (Chris' brother), 3 guests, Amy, Moriah, Tess, Gabrielle, Grace (a volunteer for the week), Keens, Tamara, Tiffany (my other roommate), and myself...so it was a pretty decent bunch of folks.
The first half mile or so was the worst--after praying in the upper meadow we walked up the old well road and started up the side of the mountain. The trailhead is by Lily Lake, but starting at the actual trailhead adds another half hour or so. Instead, we climbed almost straight up the side of the mountain, stumbling over slash and rocks and such in the night before actually finding the trail. That's a good 25 minutes of pure respiratory agony...around this point we split into a faster group and a smaller group, re-met on the trail, and set off again. (I may have gasped upon flopping onto the trail, "That's the most beautiful sight I've ever seen in my life!")
The moon was so bright that, although most of us brought flashlights, they proved to be unnecessary. I started out with the faster group, but eventually the faster/slower groups became separated and I became separated from the faster group as well. The result was that I doggedly hiked up the trail by myself in the moonlight for a good 45 minutes without seeing anyone...it was oddly peaceful and meditative, as long as I didn't think about bears, coyotes, and Slenderman. XD
Finally we made it to the boulder field just below the summit, and I, trying to be clever and cut time off, decided to leave the trail and climb straight to the summit. Instead I stumbled across boulders and ended up several hundred feet from where I was supposed to be. *facepalm* The lesson of the day is that (a) you don't leave the trail, (b) you don't leave the trail at night, and (c) cutting across switchbacks is only a good idea when you can see the switchback.
Anyway...moving on. Once I figured out where I was I managed to find the others and climbed to the very tip-top around 5:20. It was a good hour until sunrise, so Darron had brought a blanket and several people were huddled under said blanket. I put on my heavy coat (bringing it up was agony, but it was dang cold on that mountain) and ran around taking pictures. Darron had to yell at me a couple of times for jumping around on the rocks...what can I say, I'm surefooted and a little too confident when it comes to rock-climbing. ^^;
This was looking out on the city below TS...I think it's Lyons, but I'm not sure on that number. Whatever it is, it looked pretty sweet from up top.
Part of our brave group, with Tamara blinding me. XD
There, that's better.
Tess! She ran around with me for most of an hour, chatting and taking pictures of each other.
"MOUNTAIN I HAVE CONQUERED THEE!!!!"
Pure misery....except for Chris and Darron. I never know what they're doing.
Guy picture! I think Chris was a little chilled here. The guy has no body fat to keep warm. XD
The sun coming above the horizon...
Guess whose feet these are. :P
This was Keens' idea, and I'm super proud of how it turned out. :3
Josiah climbed to the other peak and had us line up so he could get a picture of us with the sun rising behind. Here's the result below:
Talk about AWESOME. This guy is super talented, folks. Follow him on Instagram (josiahfilm) if you so desire. He keeps trying to convince me to get an iPhone and Instagram...but I'm still thinking about it.
Partial group picture...
Then they were going to do a Pennsylvania-folks-only picture (well, Darron is from Tennessee but is Pennsylvanian by choice), and it ended up looking like Tiffany was trying to melt Darron's face off with the sun. O.o
The 'epic bro-pic', according to Darron and Chris. XD
And then I had to get one with the bros. XD (Darron and Chris consider each other brothers, basically--D worked with C and his dad last year, they've been best friends for years, etc)
On the way down we saw a bunch of gnarly twisted trees that we assume had been struck by lightning--they have these reddish veins running all the way down and look dead.
But they look pretty dang neat up close. :P
On the way down...Tess and I walked together most of the way, got a nice chat in along the way, and met up with Darron about halfway down. At that point we all started sorta racing each other down: cutting across switchbacks, jogging, occasionally sprinting (at least I did--it's a miracle that I didn't catch my foot and go sprawling across the trail multiple times)...it wasn't the smartest moment of the hike. ^^; I started walking once we reached the well road while the others jogged ahead, and made it back to staff housing by 8:05, changed my shirt, and was in the kitchen by 8:15.
Some of us did get into trouble though, because while my group was the first one back there were some others that didn't get back until 9:30 or 10, and there was a staff meeting at 8:15. So there may not be anymore sunrise hikes if people can't get their act together. >.< I missed the shakedown, what with working in the kitchen that day, but I heard about it later. It's probably a good thing I wasn't there, because I hate getting into trouble. Sigh.
That aside, I considered the hike to be highly successful! I helped in the kitchen and felt great until about 1:30 in the afternoon. At that point I felt like I had gotten slapped by a huge blanket of exhaustion-induced nausea and slept until 5. (My stomach hurts when I'm overly tired, for some reason) Afterwards I decided that I never wanted to hike Twin Sisters again. But then I hiked it last Thursday...so never say never, folks. :P
The first half mile or so was the worst--after praying in the upper meadow we walked up the old well road and started up the side of the mountain. The trailhead is by Lily Lake, but starting at the actual trailhead adds another half hour or so. Instead, we climbed almost straight up the side of the mountain, stumbling over slash and rocks and such in the night before actually finding the trail. That's a good 25 minutes of pure respiratory agony...around this point we split into a faster group and a smaller group, re-met on the trail, and set off again. (I may have gasped upon flopping onto the trail, "That's the most beautiful sight I've ever seen in my life!")
The moon was so bright that, although most of us brought flashlights, they proved to be unnecessary. I started out with the faster group, but eventually the faster/slower groups became separated and I became separated from the faster group as well. The result was that I doggedly hiked up the trail by myself in the moonlight for a good 45 minutes without seeing anyone...it was oddly peaceful and meditative, as long as I didn't think about bears, coyotes, and Slenderman. XD
Finally we made it to the boulder field just below the summit, and I, trying to be clever and cut time off, decided to leave the trail and climb straight to the summit. Instead I stumbled across boulders and ended up several hundred feet from where I was supposed to be. *facepalm* The lesson of the day is that (a) you don't leave the trail, (b) you don't leave the trail at night, and (c) cutting across switchbacks is only a good idea when you can see the switchback.
Anyway...moving on. Once I figured out where I was I managed to find the others and climbed to the very tip-top around 5:20. It was a good hour until sunrise, so Darron had brought a blanket and several people were huddled under said blanket. I put on my heavy coat (bringing it up was agony, but it was dang cold on that mountain) and ran around taking pictures. Darron had to yell at me a couple of times for jumping around on the rocks...what can I say, I'm surefooted and a little too confident when it comes to rock-climbing. ^^;
This was looking out on the city below TS...I think it's Lyons, but I'm not sure on that number. Whatever it is, it looked pretty sweet from up top.
Part of our brave group, with Tamara blinding me. XD
There, that's better.
Tess! She ran around with me for most of an hour, chatting and taking pictures of each other.
"MOUNTAIN I HAVE CONQUERED THEE!!!!"
Pure misery....except for Chris and Darron. I never know what they're doing.
Guy picture! I think Chris was a little chilled here. The guy has no body fat to keep warm. XD
The sun coming above the horizon...
Guess whose feet these are. :P
This was Keens' idea, and I'm super proud of how it turned out. :3
Josiah climbed to the other peak and had us line up so he could get a picture of us with the sun rising behind. Here's the result below:
Talk about AWESOME. This guy is super talented, folks. Follow him on Instagram (josiahfilm) if you so desire. He keeps trying to convince me to get an iPhone and Instagram...but I'm still thinking about it.
Partial group picture...
Then they were going to do a Pennsylvania-folks-only picture (well, Darron is from Tennessee but is Pennsylvanian by choice), and it ended up looking like Tiffany was trying to melt Darron's face off with the sun. O.o
The 'epic bro-pic', according to Darron and Chris. XD
And then I had to get one with the bros. XD (Darron and Chris consider each other brothers, basically--D worked with C and his dad last year, they've been best friends for years, etc)
On the way down we saw a bunch of gnarly twisted trees that we assume had been struck by lightning--they have these reddish veins running all the way down and look dead.
But they look pretty dang neat up close. :P
On the way down...Tess and I walked together most of the way, got a nice chat in along the way, and met up with Darron about halfway down. At that point we all started sorta racing each other down: cutting across switchbacks, jogging, occasionally sprinting (at least I did--it's a miracle that I didn't catch my foot and go sprawling across the trail multiple times)...it wasn't the smartest moment of the hike. ^^; I started walking once we reached the well road while the others jogged ahead, and made it back to staff housing by 8:05, changed my shirt, and was in the kitchen by 8:15.
Some of us did get into trouble though, because while my group was the first one back there were some others that didn't get back until 9:30 or 10, and there was a staff meeting at 8:15. So there may not be anymore sunrise hikes if people can't get their act together. >.< I missed the shakedown, what with working in the kitchen that day, but I heard about it later. It's probably a good thing I wasn't there, because I hate getting into trouble. Sigh.
That aside, I considered the hike to be highly successful! I helped in the kitchen and felt great until about 1:30 in the afternoon. At that point I felt like I had gotten slapped by a huge blanket of exhaustion-induced nausea and slept until 5. (My stomach hurts when I'm overly tired, for some reason) Afterwards I decided that I never wanted to hike Twin Sisters again. But then I hiked it last Thursday...so never say never, folks. :P
