48!

I can't believe I finally made it!  I hiked Carrigan today for #48. It was a beautiful fall day, perfect temperatures and fall foliage.  I was pretty impressed with myself because I got up at 5:16 (according to my fitbit) and was out the door at around 5:30.  We're at about 12 hours of sunlight right now, and Carrigan is a 10.6 mile hike with a book time of 5-7 hours, and it's almost a 3 hour drive to get there. So, I knew I needed to be early. (It's a long drive, but I listened to The Rosie Project on the road and it made the drive much quicker - highly recommend). I got to the parking lot at 8:30 and headed out at 8:45.

Carrigan is one of those mountains that starts out with a long walk to the mountain. The first 1.7 miles was this beautiful saunter in the woods, by a river. The leaves were changing colors and there were enough on the ground for some good crunching. It was a nice start. At the 1.7 mile mark there's a sign to either go up, or off to Lake Nancy.  Things got real fast at this point. The next 3.3 miles were pretty unrelenting uphill.  But, there were switchbacks!  On the one hand it was easier, but they kind of messed with my head - I thought I was at the top at least a dozen times before I was. Once I got up there, it was so worth it!  There's a false summit with an amazing view, and a fire tower on Carrigan itself. I was feeling kind of pooped (possibly because of only 4 1/2 hours of sleep) and had to sit and eat for a bit, but then I really wanted to get to the top.

The view from the fire tower was amazing! I told this guy up there that it was my #48, and so he took my picture. This other woman was finishing hers too. I took a bunch of pictures, but it was so windy up there, and it was one of those sketchy fire towers that you feel like could fall over at any time, so I just stayed for like 5 minutes, and then walked back to the false summit to eat.  From the top of Carrigan you can see the most 4000 footers - I looked at all the mountains that I'd climbed, and I have to say I was pretty impressed!  Then I ate a cheese sandwich on healthy bread - but it was saved by avocado! I spent about a half hour at the top before heading down - I knew traffic would be awful, and I wanted to beat it a little if I could.

It took me 4 hours up and 3 down from the false summit.  I practiced planning one step ahead, and did pretty well at it, except I still have to say "one step ahead" out loud, which maybe is a little weird.

I plan to do the 5 mountains that I haven't soloed yet next year, so it doesn't feel like my project is done. But until the bugs are gone next spring, maybe I'll just do some like 6 mile hikes or so???

Now that my hiking project is done, I'm thinking about getting a little more immersed in climbing. Can this become a climbing blog too?

Last weekend I finally got to see my adoring audience!  Haha, well, that is to say that I got to see Kit, and a couple other friends from college. It was super fun to see them - we will do it again before another 15 years pass :)