Our Hike to Exhaustion Peak

Friday was the perfect day to go hiking in the Appalachians, so of course we took advantage of the excellent weather. We began our trek at about noon; we returned from our voyage at 3:30. Ahhh yes... a 3 1/2 hour hike. We were prepared: three bottles of water, two bottles of tea, one and a half sandwiches (one for my parents to share and one for Travis-half of which he used to nourish himself prior to the hike), Siegal diet cookies for me, granola bars, and graham crackers... oh yeah... we were ready. Anyway, we began our journey, pumped and ready for action.

Being young whipper snappers, Travis and I pulled ahead. We came upon a rock near Jane Bald (I wonder which "Jane" this was named after- unfortunate bald woman), and we stopped for a break to rest and allow the parents to join up with us. It was at this joyous stop that we realized we only had one water bottle in addition to the one bottle of tea (which my mom was currently guzzling since she thought we had plenty of fluids). In addition to no water bottles, apparently the cookies were forgotten in the car. This wasn't so bad... for everyone else. However, I did not bring anything else to eat because I figured I would have the cookies. Nope. We tried just sipping a little bit of water since the bottle was technically my parents', and we didn't want to drink it all. When my parents showed up, we shared the bad news with them, and they actually ended up finding the rest of Trav's sandwich but no water bottles. Travis ate his sandwich (I wasn't hungry), and then we all concluded that we would be fine! No worries, right?

Once we arrived on Jane Bald, we decided to reach the next bald since Jane was a lot closer than expected. We continued our trek to the Grassy Ridge despite the lack of food and water. When Travis and I arrived, I felt like collapsing on the big boulders that were at the top. However, I am far too much of a sissy to sit on a boulder where I know... critters... dwell. I had seen too many spiders on our journey to be stupid enough to sit on one of the boulders. When my parents finally arrived at the Grassy Ridge, we all decided to eat something. I was going to just eat graham crackers, but my dad made me eat half of my parents' sandwich while they shared the other half so that I would have some nourishment. We walked a little bit further until we realized we were walking downwards; we then turned back.

You know what the worst part of hiking is? That moment when you realize that allllll of that hiking you just did... you know... all of that intense walking and climbing that nearly killed you... was only half. Ahhh yes... when you hike into the mountains, you are only hiking into the mountains. This means that all the time and effort that it took you to get to the destination at which you are resting and relaxing now… you get to do that again. :D Unfortunately, we were not born with “gas gauges” built into our bodies. Therefore, we cannot tell that, “Oh gee, I am half tired now; better turn back!” By the time we reached the Grassy Ridge… I was whipped… not only whipped but dehydrated as well. Either way, we had no choice but to head alllll the way back to our car.

When we finally trudged back, I had already had fantasies of guzzling water until content. Thankfully we were not too far from home: about 15 minutes. When I got into the car there was a little bit of warm… nay… hot tea in a bottle... hot or not, I needed it. Slurp! Ew. It was gone in half a second. I laid down on Trav’s lap for the drive home; when we returned home, I drank and drank and drank and drank! …water! Ahhhh, hydration at last…

Well, there you go… that is the story of our near fatal hike… eh okay… so not near fatal… but we WERE tired! Have a similar story? Gone on a beautiful hike recently? Share!