The Afterburn

Well, I slept like a baby last night. Actually, why does the saying "slept like a baby" refer to a really good sleep? Aren't babies often up during the night? Whatever. Everything feels surprisingly good this morning, with the exception of my shoulders and the sunburn on my neck and face. Yes, that's right...sunburn! Yeeeeehaw. I was going to bring my camping hat along which has a nice wide brim all around, but I thought it would be too cold and I'd have my toque on the whole time. Boy, was I ever wrong. It was sooo warm. It literally felt like 15 to 18 degrees. No jackets. No toques. No gloves. It was great.

The most difficult part of the hike was the snow conditions. They had four to six inches of fresh snow a few days before, but it had settled and started to melt. It was too deep to walk on properly, and two wet and sticky to ski or snowshoe properly. Mark tried to use his snowshoes, but snow kept balling up under the crampons. Every stride we took was a battle. First the snow was very unstable, so your ankle would roll one way or the other, and then when you tried to push off and go forward, the snow just gave way. It was very slow going. I was probably the most fortunate because I brought my trekking poles which helped immensly for balance, especially with the 30 pounds on our backs.

Oh our backs. Yikes. I had no idea my shoulders could get so sore. I have a decent backpack, and it fits properly, so I'm not sure what the problem was. I sure hope I can build them up though, or there's no way I'll be able to do the Maah Daah Hey, 'cause we'll be carrying way more weight.

Anywhoos, gotta run...worship team practice in half and hour.