My second day in Montana (first full day, Friday) started pretty early. Craig and Kara (my cousins) had to get up and go to school and since I wanted to visit with them some, I got up as well. The day started out slowly, exactly how I had wanted. A couple hours later, I asked my uncle, Paul, what we were going to do that day and he pointed to a mountain out the window and said that we were going to climb that.
I was ready, but still had no clothes thanks to the airline and only had a pair of Doc Martins boots that are about 10 years old and have zero tread. Regardless, I did not have any more suitable shoes on the way, so I was going to need to go to the store. I borrowed some clothes and a more suitable coat from Paul and then we went to the store.
At the store, I bought a pair of hiking shoes, some wool socks and a chap stick. The shoes were great and made me feel as if I could run faster and jump higher! ;) We then headed to a sandwich shop (like Subway, but mo betta) and each got a foot long to take with us, half to eat now and the other half to eat at the top. Sweet!
We headed to the base of the mountain and started hiking. It was a bit snowy, but did not seem too cold. It is amazing what a difference having the right clothes can make. I had always hated the snow growing up, but as I thought about it, I realized that I was always playing in the snow in jeans, gym socks and sneakers with just a coat, no hat and usually no gloves. I was a kid and stupid then I guess, but having the right clothes made all the difference in the world!
The climb started out pretty easy and went along a nice creek. After about a half mile, we turned to start heading upwards. This is when things started to take me by surprise. See, I had never been in the mountains before and did not know what to expect. My house sits right at 227 (about 681 feet) meters above sea level. I was now climbing at about 1350 meters (about 4000 feet). While that is not a huge change for some, it was enough to wear me out pretty quickly. I started to get winded REALLY quickly and felt as if I could not catch my breath to save my life. We rested a bit and I could go on, but it quickly became clear that this would have to be a slow climb and Paul had some things to do that afternoon.
Instead of going further up the mountain, we opted to hike around it. This was much easier for me and was still a great time. I did leave a bit disappointed though and really wanted to come back to climb to the top of the mountain later that week.
That evening we rented some movies and spent time catching up as well as waiting for my luggage to show up. It finally arrived at about ten at night! The best part is that I was able to give the family the gifts that I had brought from San Antonio, some Mexican food (canned chipotle peppers, enchilada sauce, awesome salsa and Rudy's BBQ sauce for my aunt and uncle and Texas A&M hoodies for the kids). Everyone was happy and we went to bed ready for a day of snowboarding and an end of winter Skiesta celebration at Lost Trail on the Montana and Idaho border.
I had never snowboarded before, so I was not sure what to expect, but I knew it was going to be a great time.
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