Our Mountain

So, there is this mountain, Bear Mountain, that is right next to our house.  We see it everyday when we walk out of our house, drive to work or into town.  We have been wanting to summit this mountain since we've lived in our house!  Well, we finally did it this past weekend! 

Wait, let me backtrack, before I continue on with this story...I am going on a 4-day, 3-night backpacking trip over the 4th of July.  I am joining one of my Alaska BFFs, her mom, and mom's two friends and we are hiking the 33-mile Chilkoot Trail, or Goldrush/Klondike Trail.  This trail starts in Alaska and ends in Canada.  Michael is going to take off of work and stay home with Joey so I can check one more thing off of my Bucket List.  Anyways, I have been freaking out about this trip over the past week, so Michael suggested us summitting a mountain in our area to help me get over my trip jitters.  That was our main kick in the butt for finally doing Bear Mountain.

 This was us half way up the mountain.  It took us two hours to summit the mountain, and just under one hour to go down!   

Joey LOVES being outside so much.  You would never know that just an hour earlier, he was being a total holy terror.  Once we put him in the pack and started hiking, he was an angel!  Within 30 minutes of our hike, he was passed the heck out! 

Michael carried Joey, but I still carried a 21-pound pack up the mountain.  I need to make sure I'm always preparing for this trip!  I've heard that the hardest part of a backpacking trip is not being used to carrying the pack.  Well, I carry my personal little 22-lb pack, aka. Joey, everyday, so I'm hoping that gives me a little bit of an advantage. 

 It was awesome summitting this mountain!  It was 3 miles roundtrip, and 1700 elevation gain! 

 

 Once we got to the top, we all ate and drank a little to refuel for the trip down! 

 All of our heads were in the clouds after that hike!

 Joey and Michael on the top!  We did it!!!

It was pretty steep and painful going up, but going down hurt WAY WORSE!!  My legs were shaking on the way down!  It was horrible!  We ran most of the way down because that was actually the least painful!  Go figure! 

It was a really good hike, though, and I'm glad we did it because it somewhat calmed my nerves for my big trip!