Mt. Baldy

Our friends, Keith and Shannon, go hiking every year to Mt. Baldy.  Usually there is tons of snow on the ground and they hike up to a hut which is about the halfway point and they all spend the night in the hut and then some people continue hiking the next morning to reach the Summit.  Once those people are back from the morning hike, everyone packs their stuff back up, cleans up and heads back down the mountain.

Now, I'm not exactly what you'd call the outdoorsy type - and here's my big backpack on the left.

Shannon and Beth

Me and Jules

I honestly thought that I wasn't going to make it all the way up the hill at one point.  I was carrying what felt like at least 50 pounds of stuff in my backback and the weather was surprisingly nice so I was sweating horribly.  I did manage to make it up - and here's some pictures of the cabin to prove it.

Inside the hut

View from the hut

Relaxing after our monstrous hike - Beth, Keith, Jules, Shannon, Me

Keith signing the log book of all the people who visit

Getting ready to watch the sunset:

Kevin, Brittany, Keith, Jeff (Pants), Shannon, Jules, Beth

Group pic!

Me, Jules, Brittany, Shannon, Jackie, Beth

Kevin, Keith, Jeff, Danny

Keith and Shannon

The lovely outhouse

Kitchen

The sink where fresh mountain water streams in - it was cold and refreshing

Playing Apples to Apples (which I ended up winning!) :)

The next morning a few people were going to Summit to the top of the mountain.  I thought they were crazy and had no intention of going, but, 6:30am Shannon asked Jules if she wanted to go.  Jules asked me if I was going and I said no, then two seconds later popped out of bed, got dressed and headed out for another crazy hike.

Shannon said we did about 75% off trail hiking up to the top - it was icy, had some snow and was pretty steep.  And - Keith was the leader for four girls: Shannon, Jules, Beth and me.  Where were all the boys?

Beth, Shannon, Keith, me

This is me impersonating the tough hike

Up we go

Finally at the top!

10,000 feet

Yea!  Back down to the hut.

Beth relaxing 

Where we slept 

Group pic - 

Top row: Kevin, Brittany, Keith, Shannon

Middle: Jules, Me

Bottom row: Danny, Jackie, Jeff (Pants) and Beth

Jules and I 

Heading back to the cars

Finally at the bottom - Shannon, Jules, Brittany, Beth, Me

It was such a fun, exhausting weekend.  And I'm still sore.