Lake Serene

Kirk, the comment about cheating and kicking yourself in the ass was perfect. Last night we hosted a bachelorette party at my place and then went out. I think I had 3 sips of an alcoholic beverage all night, but the food was definitely off.

So today, after just 4.5 hours of sleep we headed out to an 8 mile hike up to Lake Serene. It was Allison and her husband John, my old roommate Fritz and a friend (Ben) from Indianapolis. I don't have a lot of hiking experience, so this was easily the most difficult hike I've done.

First, it was 4 miles to the top. We took a small 1 mile detour to see some additional water falls which put our total hike to 9 miles out and back. But the kicker, was that the trail is hikeable from mid June and we're a month early for that. We expected snow at the top, but we had no idea just how much there would be! It started about 1.5 miles from the summit, and it was dicey to say the least. The trails were covered in snow, then we had to cross a steep snow field and get over a snow ridge. The majority of people that took the hike to the top had either hiking poles and/or snow shoes. We did not, which meant I was firing some muscle fibers I didn't know exhisted just to stay on my feet (which we didn't always do successfully). Even though I have only taken 3 classes from Carl, I was thankful for the million repitions of lunges we've been doing on unstable surfaces. So key to safety on the tougher hikes.

It was 90 F at parking lot level so we were wearing shorts. At times it got cold, but the majority of the time we were covered in sweat, mud, snow and water from the waterfalls. The scene from the top was incredible of the mountains and the still very frozen lake below. I can't think of a more beautiful way to "punish ourselves". Or better company. We left the house at 7:30 am and didn't get back until about 4 pm. Honestly, it didn't feel like a whole day went by... something to do with the eye candy and our never ending group banter (fart game in the bathtub, Italians and Rocky).

The hike itself took about 5 hours. All of us were pretty exhausted from little sleep and a lot of sun. Summer is here, I have some mild "heat exhaustion". ;-) It's 7 pm now, I've showered and eaten. I'm catching up on TiVo even though I should be catching up on work email. Blah... maybe tomorrow. Right now, I'm going to fight to urge to nap and try to stick it out until 9ish and crash early. Hopefully I can walk tomorrow... TBD ST (to be determined, stay tuned).