Enchantment hike (that was very LONG)

The day before our Wenatchee wedding reception, my dad and I planned to go on an 18-mile day hike through the enchantments. We had done it before, and had finished in a reasonable amount of time. And we both had loved it. This time, my dad had invited several people and brought his fishing rod to fish in the lakes with.

We got up at 4 AM so that we could arrive at the trailhead by 6 or so. The weather was quite comfortable for a hike. Brian found some moss along the way and posed with it, pretending it was a goatee.

After hiking around a lake, we came to the foot of Azgard pass - a steep incline that is normally the hardest part of the hike.

Hollis is super cute as he smiles at me; we're partway up Azgard and are looking down on the lake we climbed earlier.

We made it to the top just after noon. The weather was wonderful! Hollis and I were very excited to be that far up the pass.

We all ate lunch and then began exploring. Hollis's favorite part was the goats.

Then we started the long downhill portion. However, we were much slower than we anticipated, and took 12 hours to make it down. It was dark for the last 4 to 5 miles of the hike, and the flashlight Hollis and I brought was nearly useless. Natalie and Tim had run ahead - both were equipped with headlamps. In fact, I think they ran the entire last six miles. We were supposed to be in a group of 5 - Nat, Hollis, Tim, Brian, and I - so their headlamps would have been useful to spread between Hollis, Brian and I. However, Brian took a little bit longer to get packed up, so I wanted for Brian, and Hollis waited for me. And then we ran, thinking that we'd catch up to Nat and Tim. But we didn't. And then it got dark, so we went slow. GB caught up to us - he had a headlamp and a flashlight.

We reached the end of the trail, and then couldn't figure out how to get to the parking lot! It was extremely frustrating. We ended up hiking back and forth along the end before we found it. Nat and Tim were flashing the car headlights to let us know where the parking lot was, and that did help. It was after 11 30 PM when we reached the car. We were exhausted and filthy and sore. We waited for the last of our group to finish - it was 1 AM by that time. Then we drove home. I stayed up and talked to my dad (I think) so he could drive.

By the time we got home and Hollis and I got cleaned up, it was 4 AM. We had been up for twenty-four hours! Needless to say, we weren't all that helpful for setting up for our wedding reception. My mom then officially banned hikes of any sort the day before wedding receptions.