Feelin' a bit timpy

 This week was fairly busy - packed in a lot of fun and work into this little week. I feel like the beginning of this week was two weeks ago, but that means it was a fun week right? Starting with tuesday (monday I just did school all day I think), I headed to the temple. Actually a new temple for me - and everyone since it just opened - the Saratoga Springs temple!

Ive said it before - but I love having so many temples to pick from up here. I love going to a new temple every time and experiencing each of them. Im a "check off the list" type of person and I love adding a new temple to the list. 

That night I headed over to help emma make drews birthday cake! We celebrated with his buddies and had a fun evening of cake, ice cream and presents. 

Hard pic of course - as he almost drops the cake. Everyone loved mom's chocolate lovers cake, who wouldn't? Happy birthday Drew, love you brother! Enjoy your taylor swift year - #22! On a normal night I would've driven home and gone to bed, but it wasnt a normal night. Instead I drove down the road to Karee's house and spent the night. When I say "spent the night" what I really mean to say is I slept for 2.5 maybe 3 hours before we woke up at 1:30am. I love hiking and I love hiking early to see sunrise, but I also really love sleeping so its a struggle, but we did it. Up at 1:30 and to the trail head by 3am. Timpooneke trailhead at 3am is a little eerie when you are the only ones in the parking lot knowing you have 8 miles of cold, dark hiking with who knows what lurking in the forest. Honestly, we were both contemplating bailing with the thought of just us two up against moose, bears and cougars. But we already planned it, and woke up and drove here so we just went for it. 

Quite literally the most terrifying photo - but oh well. Miles fly by when its dark and this hike was no exception. I feel like we cruised up the mountain. We carried our bear spray and trekked through the forest. We saw a couple deer at one point... only seeing these couple pairs of bright eyes staring at us. It stopped us in our tracks for a second as we stared back at the eyes trying to figure out what animal was in front of us. Finally, the deer pranced away and we carried on. 

Our goal was the top by sunrise - and we made better timing than we thought. With the first hints of sunlight we were headed up to the saddle. The uphill climbing kept us warm so we shed our coats fairly quick. 

Saddle! Jackets back on as we took a little break. The weather was actually so nice for us - which is surprising for being so late in the season. And yes there is still huge spots of snow pack along the side of the mountain, its insane. 

This picture is right before the last uphill scramble!

The top for sunrise! We did it! 

Apparently its usually windy up top, but it was seriously so nice. 

lunch (or I guess breakfast since it was 7:30am) on top! 

signed the shack!

Not a ton of people on top - a couple campers and a group joined us a few minutes after we got up there but it was pretty quiet. We ate our food and chilled for about 30 minutes before we started the long trek down. They way down I started to drag. I haven't been longer than 10 miles since before my back started hurting in 2019 and this hike is 16. Plus the lack of sleep - the way down felt like forever. 

It also started raining which made everything muddy and slick. There were very few people who hiked it earlier enough to watch sunrise, but there were tons heading up the mountain as we were coming down - the rain ended up scaring a lot of people to turn around early which sucks. One perk of waking up early I guess - we beat the weather. 

Super pretty hike and a fun, exhausting morning. I love hiking and I hate hiking haha. Finally reached the parking lot with sore toes and shaking legs. It took us about 30 minutes longer to go down than it did to go up. Overall time of 8.5 hours for 16 miles. Not a bad way to spend my day off. 

Didn't see any wildlife besides the deer and some mountain goats up top. Celebrated with costa vida for lunch and a fat nap once I got home. Oddly enough, besides my toes the only thing sore the next few days were my calves. But Ill take it. 

I actually planned to hike timp this week in preparation for night shifts. Yes, Im back on nights this week and next. Love/hate relationship with working nights, but its been a good week of work. I was floated for the first time down to the telemetry floor. I had two heart failure patients and it was a pretty boring night (boring nights are good). Back on my regular unit the last couple of nights and its still been fairly boring. To pass time, some co-workers and I from 3-5am played song quizzes while wrapped up in our warm blankets with our chairs reclined. It was fun. School is still going well - not learning a ton yet, just getting through it and doing what I need to. This upcoming week is going to be very boring (more work and a lot of school) so just a warning for next weeks blog. Alright peace out.