For year now I've been wanting to go hiking. I remember almost three years ago sitting in my seat over at MBU researching "how/where to hike" in my area. I brought it up to the hubby and he wasn't too enthusiastic about the idea. I put it on the to do list and kind of forgot about it until recently. It was one of those things where you simply wake up one day and say "today I'm going for a hike". Except that I didn't go for the hike at that precise moment but I would have if someone was available to go with me. I asked a couple of my cousins to go with me and only one agreed to do it the following week. We set the date and picked the place, then it was only a matter of waiting.
That following Thursday we were all ready to go as planned. We've never been hiking and we didn't know what to expect. You can read all you want but unless you've experienced it yourself you just won't know and that's a fact.
As my cousin and I joke about our survivor kit (which included Doritos, juicy juice, nutella, marshmallow fluff, granola bar, go-gurts, and water) I laughed out loud and Steven ask what was so funny. I told him about our survivor kit and he laughed, then he joke about not being invited. I figured since he showed no interest in the past he wouldn't care for hiking this time either plus it was on a Thursday and he wasn't going to be able to go due to work but work was slow that Wednesday and the same was expected for Thursday so he joined the wagon.
We drove over thirty minuted to this place, I had no idea it was going to take this long but the drive was totally worth it.
As we started our walk into the woods that beautiful morning in April I started to get worried. Any little noise had me freaking out. "What if that's a bear? you know there are bears in this area right?" said my cousin. Then to top it off the trail divided in three paths and we weren't sure which one to take. Not to mention that the markers were like nonexistent. Okay, there were markings but I was expecting them to be orange like the one I read about when researching this area not purple pray paint markings on a tree. Then the "warning signs" made my belly hurt. I was really getting scared. I even contemplated telling them to let's turn around. #truestory
Then the rocky parts began along with very thin pathways with nothing on the side but deep open space. I'm afraid of heights so this definitely was the last straw for me. I was not going to make it anywhere if the entire hike was going to be like that. Then suddenly this happened!
Waterfalls!
Beautiful scenery with lots of running water. It was amazing! So peaceful and quiet with only nature's sounds and a gentle breeze.
As we continued to hike our way up the more beautiful it got and the less worried I got. I was witnessing God's creation :) There was nothing man-made in this place but markings on rocks and trees. Everything else was all God. Now I see why people hike, you can't make this up.
We saw a couple a few feet up but they stopped right there and after we passed them they turned around (maybe they were on their way back down?) When we reached this beautiful spot. I was sure this was the end. We stopped here and took pictures upon pictures. After checking the time I realized it only took us about thirty minutes. The drive here was longer. We joked and laughed and talked and agreed that this was "our thing". My cousin and I don't run, or exercise, or play sports, or are girly girls. We don't have "a thing" to call ours. So this hiking trip was to see if we liked it enough to make it our thing. And what do you know, I think we are.
A few minutes later Steven started to check out the area and then he was gone. I freaked and called for him. I heard his voice coming from up high and when I looked up there he was. Up higher in the trail.
I guess there's more to see. He said to come up, that he found another waterfall. So up we went and more beauty. This was our stop. We stood here about another 20 minutes as my cousin and I took selfies and Steven carved our initials in a tree.
As we started to walk down two girls were coming up. Steven asked them if there was another trail to go down and the one girl said there was but it wasn't marked. So unless we knew the area she didn't recommend it. We were bummed because the way up was rocky so going down was going to be hard. It wasn't as bad though. We made it down fairly quick and no one got hurt. We're definitely going to try this trail again and we're aiming for the full trail (whatever that means).
First hiking experience = Total SUCCESS!
xoxo
Pamela
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