My Everest

It's been getting colder and darker here by the day. So many people are talking about purchasing sad lamps to brighten your mood.  Seriously, this is a thing.  I don't think I'm there yet but I do already hate that it gets dark by 4:30pm and pretty soon it will be 3:30pm.  By 5pm I feel pressure to make dinner and by 7:30pm I feel like it's time for bed. Even Luca's internal clock is off.  But I'm still excited to actually experience a proper autumn and winter.  The leaves are changing and the colors are gorgeous.

They say this time of year is when you really need to start making the most of your days, and motivate yourself to get out of your pajamas.  So on Thursday I went on another hike with my ex-pat friends. We went to Clachnaben (or as we coined it, 'Clachna-never-ending').  It's 16 km (10 miles) and a 3 boot, which in hiking lingo is pretty f* hard.  If you recall, the longest hike I had done up to this point was 7.5 miles and that one had 3-4 gradual rolling rises.  This hike was the steepest, rockiest, iciest, and most challenging one I've ever done.  This was my Everest.  The first phase of the walk was through a forest, which was beautiful because all around us, the effects of autumn were apparent. The leaves were  changing color.

Nary, Jillian, Laine 

Over the bridge and through the woods, we started to see the path to Clachnaben. 

Clachnaben is that tiny structure on the far right

The ascent was steep and rocky.  If I claimed the other hikes had rocky paths, nothing came close to this one.  As I neared the top of Clachnaben, the temperatures continued to drop.  After what felt like an eternity, I made it to the top and got my breath back.  

Ta-Da!

At this point I figured we were half-way done. Nope. What turned out to be the last 2.5 grueling hours amounted to 5km.  My body ached at the thought of having another 11km to go. But we just kept on trekking. Going downhill when it's steep and icy is NOT easy. I found it harder to keep myself from tumbling forward while going down these rocky, steep, icy paths. Thankfully Nary had an extra walking stick, which I quickly made use of. Those walking sticks are genius! 

17.5 km (we did some back tracking) and 5 hours later, every muscle in my body was screaming.  But I managed to have a smile on my face (while trying not to puke). I was proud of myself for pushing through and going the distance.  Special shout out to Nary who kept me going, especially in the last 30 minutes when I really needed the push. Thanks girl!