Wheeler Peak

Everyone has their "I had to endure it" story; a time in their life when recieved blessings AFTER the trial of their faith. This was mine. As we all know, one of my favorite places in the world is Carson, New Mexico. We just returned from there, where we spent a most excellent week among the sage brush, tumble-weed, and more mountains than anyone deserves to be around. I love the mountains. On this trip, I had a run-in with a big mountain. In fact, I had an experience, one which i'll never forget, on the tallest mountain in New Mexico: Wheeler Peak. In the pictures I will show below, we may be smiling, but I assure you most of this hike was spent frowning. Being from Chicago, I didn't grow up hiking. That's not to say I wasn't athletic, but with no mountains, I never really got the chance to hike. When Ryan mentioned hiking Wheeler Peak, I didn't give it a second thought. I figured I could make it with little or no problem. Ryan decided to take a new "trail" that had only been open about a year. No when I say "trail", I really don't mean trail, because there wasn't a trail. After hiking about 2 miles we came to a lake and I thought well, this has been hard, but oh well. Ryan gave me the opportunity to turn back before actually starting UP. I had a feeling that I needed to continue with the plan. So we treked through the forest when suddenly our trip changed directions from whatever direction we were walking, to up. But alas, with much grunting and many tears, we made it to what we thought was the top only to find it was only the first of 3 peaks. BUMMER! But we finally did make it and I now have my name in a book kept at the top and a t-shirt to prove it.