Hike of Brutality

I haven't really been hiking since...oh the first of July when I started having morning sickness, and my sister that I went hiking with all the time was also pregnant, and all our kids had the hand, foot and mouth disease. When we hiked in Canada, Sterling carried Ruth. Also last week we 'meandered' and Sterling carried Ruth. But I'm still in pretty decent shape, and I've been training for a 5k (so I can beat my boss) even though I'm pregnant, so I figured I was up for a "family stake hike" and since we were hiking up Snow Basin and got to ride the gondola down for free, it was really only HALF of a hike, right?!?! WRONG!!!!!

This hike was STRAIGHT UP the ski hill. Pretty much. In about fifty yards I wanted to turn back. But I wanted to see if it got better. It never did. I had to singly lift each leg every time I moved it and convince myself that it really could go forward one more step. By the time I was REALLY done, we figured we'd have to hike less if we just kept going up and then we could ride the gondola all the way down. Plus, Sterling had to be back to take a test at the testing center, and we figured that would be faster for him.

Every single person we passed made a comment about Sterling being a true hero/ironman/etc. for carrying Ruth up the mountain. Several small children were stopped along the way. It was NOT what we were expecting from a lovely 'stake hike' that was advertised for FAMILIES. We made it to the top. Since I had thought it would be a nice little jaunt, I hadn't packed anything except some starbursts and some kid granola bars. I was ravenous. The smell of food wafting from the lodge at the top of the mountain made me nauseous because I was SO instantaneously hungry. I told Sterling we had to get on the gondola immediately and go down to eat, or we were buying lunch at the lodge. He voted the lodge. We shared a ten dollar hamburger. Yup. Biggest rip-off of my life. But it came with one of those REALLY delicious crunchy side-pickles. They also let us have cheese fries instead of regular fries at no extra charge.

It was probably the best meal I ever inhaled. It really was a delicious burger. Probably not ten-dollar-good, but definitely worth it, this once. It kept me satiated until we were home and I was able to procure more food for this Little Boy Blue that thinks his mommy needs to eat like an elephant.

Since it was so incredibly strenuous, I wasn't really up to taking pictures. Plus, I was really disappointed because we got lost on our way up and saw all these BEAUTIFUL fall colors, and all we saw on the hike was rock and more rock. No beautiful fall colors. What a waste. But I did take some at the end when we were on the gondola. Ruthie thought it was great fun. I should have taken a picture of the lodge. Apparently its new. And it was gorgeous.

View from the top of the mountain. Nice smog from the Idaho forest fires.