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!
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I thought that was it, I was wrong...it was much higher than that little hill!
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Pretty scenery
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my favorite part of the hike, the flat part...
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the view on our way up
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the start of "the boulder field from hell"
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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
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looking back at what I had just crossed...
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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
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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:
Wow! So impressive. I would have just sat down. hahaha
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!!!
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