Tuesday, May 5, 2009

The Devil lives in Northern England

Seriously, I have walked the landscape of hell. So when Annie asked me a couple of weeks ago if I wanted to join her and some co-workers to go hiking in the Lakes District I had no idea what I was getting myself into! I thought I would be going for a nice leisurely hike around some lakes maybe some big "hills" too. Well turns out we were climbing Scafell Pike, the highest mountain in England. Awesome. You know, I did do the stairclimber in the gym about 4 times in the last two weeks, so surely I'd be fine. After the first 30 minutes, I literally wanted to die. I wanted to sit on a boulder and wait for them to come back for me. Unfortunately, Annie wasn't having any of that. If I expect to climb Kilimanjaro in January then I had to do this. Scafell Pike is only 1/6th the size of Kili, needless to say I have a LOT of training to do in preparation. Even though my stance right now is that I would be perfectly happy not ever climbing another mountain again. Although, that feeling gets slightly less as I regain use of my legs and my memory fails me a little more with each passing day. So I'm sure by January I'll be fully recovered and a lot more prepared! All of that said, the Lakes District is absolutely beautiful! It is dotted with tiny towns that have really cute B&B's and restaurants, it is very quaint and just what I thought the English Countryside would be! Here are some pics so you can see my agony....

Patrick, Irene, Me and Annie about to start our Hike...my last smile for a while...about 7 hours to be exact!



I thought that was it, I was wrong...it was much higher than that little hill!


Pretty scenery

my favorite part of the hike, the flat part...

the view on our way up

the start of "the boulder field from hell"
we had to go down just to go back up, I was not excited about that at all! that narrow little patch of boulders is what I was about to go across



looking back at what I had just crossed...


about to make the final ascent to the peak, it was a forced smile. those are some pretty big rocks ahead that I have to get myself up. (about the LEAST flattering picture of myself!)
The peak...almost there

view from the top!
On my way back down...concentrating on some tricky terrain. A person as clutzy as me should be allowed to do these kinds of things!



2 comments:

Courtney Squillante said...

Wow! So impressive. I would have just sat down. hahaha

Lindsay Wagner said...

lauren...that's amazing!!! i would have NEVER survived that! you might have no feeling in your legs, but I seriously think mine would have fallen off!!! i am VERY proud of you!!! and it was beautiful out there!!!