Mount Borah

The pictures don't do it justice.

I'm smiling because the rest is downhill!

A chance to rest my feet!

Dave and I hiked Mount Borah on Saturday with his uncle Todd and Todd's daughter, Corinne. It is the highest peak in the state of Idaho at 12,662 feet. The trail starts at about 7,000 feet and you climb to the top over 3.5 miles (definitely seemed WAY longer). I knew I was in trouble when the information board at the start of the trailhead called it "grueling". I felt like Dave used pure trickery to talk me in to doing this, since I have never hiked anything. By the way, this is not really hiking, but more climbing. Once you get to 11,000 feet, you can stop at Chickenout Ridge. This is for those hikers that don't want to climb the ridges and cross the snow, or plummet to their death. Of course, we continued on and climbed to the top.
It was rewarding to know that we made it to the top, but I would hardly say that I did it gracefully. The higher you go, the harder it was to breathe, and my toes kept cramping up inside my boot. Todd kept saying, "You're almost there", but it never seemed like it! I thought about crying once, but then realized I wouldn't be able to breathe, so I stopped. Before we started hiking, we all took Excedrin with caffeine to help us deal with the elevation, and I am glad that we did. Even with the medication, I sometimes felt light headed. The way down was more challenging than I thought also. It really strains your knees and feet to be going downhill so steeply.
My two biggest fears about hiking/camping are 1) blisters and 2) having to go to the bathroom in the woods. I did get blisters (I am beginning to think this is inevitable) but I didn't have to go to the bathroom until the very end, so we picked up our pace so that I could make it to the port-a-potty. On the way home, we got big, 44oz drinks and had a big meal. My shower never felt so good!

Maybe my very first hike shouldn't have been the highest, steepest peak in Idaho, but it was a sense of accomplishment. Now, everything else should seem easy, right?