Epic Hiking

Texas and Utah are two completely different worlds! Summers in Texas are hot and dry, and consist of swimming almost every day, lots of air conditioning, and limited outside activity during the day (unless it's a water activity) due to the heat! In Utah, it is sometimes hot, sometimes cold, sometimes dry, and sometimes wet! Well, yesterday was supposed to be a great hiking day, right? WRONG. Lance and I started out on our hike around 9:30am, with cloudy skies and the perfect hiking temperature. As we were on our way up and enjoying the scenery, and it was something like this:

We continued on hiking for about 2 hours, and it got a bit chillier, a bit windier, and during our last 10 minutes up it started sprinkling off and on, but thankfully it stopped after a few minutes of this craziness. Once we got to the top, there were icy cold winds and rolling ominous clouds, and it looked about like this:

Rather than eating our packed lunches in the cold at the top, we decided to go a little of the way back down to get out of the wind and enjoy our lunch! But alas, plans never go as planned. Shortly after beginning our descent, it started hailing, which was fine, because we weren't getting wet, and we would soon be in the wooded area, right? WRONG. The hail turned into rain, and not only were we soaked to the bone, but so was our path, which happened to now be mud! We had no choice but to continue on our downward descent, which was quite the challenge! Lance would have to hold on to me to help me down as I held on to plants to keep from falling, and we had to walk sideways and sometimes wander a bit from the path to walk on green plants to avoid intensely muddy areas! The hike down took twice as long as it should have, due to the weather, but I am proud to say we made it in one piece down, which looked something like this:

Of course, the hike was my idea, and Lance wasn't happy about it at all, as the picture shows... No just kidding, he is so sweet and such a great sport about it! It was the coldest I have been since my sister's wedding, and for those of you who were there, you know how miserably cold it was! But it was well worth it! It was the most intense hike I have ever been on, and it was also probably the most fun! I am proud to say that I have recovered from my hypothermia, and lived to tell the tale!