Mount Timpanogos

Something I've never had a desire to do I actually did. I climbed Mt. Timpanogos. Grace, Nate, and I started this adventure at 1:00 pm on a Saturday and didn't finish until 11:00 pm that night. We made it to the top with relatively no problems.

What no one will ever tell you, is that up isn't the problem. It's down. My right big toe took a good beating on a couple of rocks. It felt a bit weird, like the toenail was ingrown, but I persevered. It wasn't painful, just a weird pressure. I mentioned it to the group, but decided not to be a baby and only to worry about it if blood started seeping through my shoe.

My knees were KILLING me! I clenched to my hiking pole like a grandma clenches to her cane. I was hunched over and shaking every time I had to climb down rocks. You know it's bad when you are glad the trail is going uphill inside of down. It was hurting so bad and I was going so slow that Nate refused to let me be the caboose. I started crying and tried hiding my tears, and saying "I'm fine, nothing's wrong" when Nate caught on to my sniffles. But he took my pack and watched as my knee muscles literally and visibly shook with every step.

We were in a constant race with a group of extremely annoying boy scouts. It was dark, I was tired, and in pain and we followed them onto what actually wasn't the trail (Grace had said "I don't think that is the trail" but I was so incoherent I fired back "I don't care!"). 10 minutes through the bush later we had to turn around and hike back. I started yelling "I can't do it" "I'm going to kill someone" and Nate quietly and collectively pushed me back up the hill.

We finally made it and we literally slept the rest of the weekend. When I got home, my toe was a bit swollen like the rest of my body, but nothing too bad.

Well one week later I still can't walk down stairs normally. And my toe looks like this:

I'm told by numerous people that I'm probably going to lose the nail. At least I wasn't being a baby for no reason right?

On the bright side, at least I have a legitimate reason to not run/exercise.