4:00 pm mountain climbing....

I met Jeni earlier this summer and we became instant friends. Perhaps it was because of our love of birds and visiting bodies of water in cities, but we have spent the past few Sundays having "Adventure Sunday". What I love about our friendship is our spontaneity.

We arrived at Cold Spring around 4:00 pm. I couldn't stop laughing at the absurdity of starting our hike as most people were leaving. After lathering the bug spray we started what would be an endless climb. The trails weren't clearly marked so we got lost pretty quick, but decided to make our own trail. We decided that the spiders (which I feared so) were what led us to safer pathways. The forest was beautiful, full of treasures including stick bugs, frogs, and the tiniest snake (which I tricked myself into thinking was a big worm). We even saw a deer and if you look closely at the photo, you'll see that my iphone captured it!

We climbed terribly high and enjoyed dates and quinoa crackers from the ledge. We thought ourselves AWESOME and started the trek down. And it was that...a f**ing trek! Keep in mind, we were off trail most of this hike, but it wasn't until the very end when the sun set a little too quickly past the mountain and we ended up in bramble of thorns that I began to disagree with our "awesome" sentiment. "We are no longer awesome, we are crazy!" 

To be perfectly frank, I wanted to throw a big ol' fit, but I knew I couldn't. The only thing we could do was just work our way out of it. So we did. Jeni fearlessly led in the front, hacking thorns and leading. Being in the back, I felt a little helpless and my mind wandered to scary places. Just as I was imagining someone having to rescue us, we found the trail. I have never been so happy to have solid footing!It was awesome and WE ARE AWESOME for having done it. That said, I think I'll make sure our next hiking adventure starts a little earlier!