Interrupted

My Life Thus Far
2015-07-24 08:20:02 (UTC)

Annette Lake

Oh. My. Goodness... No amount of reading of reviews could prepare me for the hike up to Annette Lake. I'm convinced that only people in amazing physical shape bothered to leave reviews. Couldn't one fat, out of shape, asthmatic warn those of us who aren't in maybe the best physical shape that this hike will be HARD. Like, "I'm not sure I can go on, call search and rescue, better yet just push me off the mountain" hard. It was 7.5 miles round trip, and that wouldn't have been so bad had I known that fully half of it would be steep elevation. Nothing warned me for that. I read somewhere that most of the elevation was gained over a 1.5 mile stretch, but that was lies. The whole way was steep terrain and miserable.

Getting to the top was totally worth the struggle we caught a glimpse of the lake. The water was so blue. It was clear, pristine, and unlike any of the lakes we've hiked to before. Annette Lake is an alpine lake, so there isn't as much moss or algae growth as lakes closer to sea level. There was no way in hell I was getting in the water (um, hello, alpine, that means COLD), but Snookums said that the hike wasn't worth the effort if he couldn't swim in the lake, so he did it! He stripped down to his boxers, and went into the lake. Annie went in with him, but Kiki and Keenan just played on the water's edge. I fed chipmunks cherries, and took pictures. It was a glorious time. I wish we could have stayed longer. You can camp up there, so I'm going to try to talk Snookums into camping on Annette Lake. I think the horrendous hike up would be totally worth it if we got to spend more than an hour or two up there.

The hike down was treacherous. As tough as the climb up was, the climb down was downright dangerous and equally hard in a different way. Every one of us ended up hurting ourselves in some way. Kiki got scraped by some tree branches, and Keenan stepped on her finger (don't even get me to lying about how that happened. I have no idea), Keenan must have fallen half a dozen times, getting huge bulbous bruises all over his legs. He looks like he's been beaten, poor baby. Annie tripped over a rock and got a gash on her ankle, and Snookums cut the bottom of his foot while climbing out of the lake. It was bleeding pretty bad at first, but upon further inspection wasn't all that deep (thank goodness). I on the other hand did exactly what my body couldn't handle. I slipped on some loose gravel and dirt, and ended up slamming my tailbone into a rock. The pain was searing. White hot. At first I couldn't move my legs, and I got a little scared, because I knew my back was already messed up. This fall was so hard, I feared I'd done some permanent damage. Eventually, the feeling started coming back into my legs, and I was able to get up. Strangely enough, my nagging hip pain was better, but I could tell that once the adrenaline rush of falling wore off, I'd be in a world of hurt. Half way home the pain hit.

By the time we got home, I was fairly certain walking wasn't going to happen, but somehow I managed to get into the house. I cooked pizza for dinner (at 10pm, but whatever, the kids loved it), and then Snookums helped me into an Epsom salt bath. I'm feeling okay right now (propped onto all of my pillows). I just worry about tomorrow...




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