Three years ago my brother and I hiked Mt. Humphries. Mt Humphries is in Flagstaff, and its the highest peak in Arizona. The hike was a little intense for me, because Sophia was only 4 months old, and I hadn't exercised a day since she was born. So I think that is enough said. When we got to the saddle, which is about 25 minutes from the peak, it started to thunder and lightening. We waited around for about 30 minutes to see if it would pass, but it only got worse, so we hiked down disappointed that we didn't make it to the very top.
Fast forward 3 years later, and here we are again planning the same hike in August. I don't know why we keep picking that month. Anyway, I checked the weather and it didn't look good, but it was the only day we could coordinate all summer. My brother, being the weather goo roo that he is, said if we got to the base at 6:30 AM we could make it to the top before it started storming. That meant we would have to leave at 4:30 AM. It's no secret I'm not a morning person, and that means I'm a night owl. While I tried to go to bed early, I just couldn't, and was left in tears by midnight when I still couldn't fall asleep. The last time I looked at the clock it was 1:00. Four o'clock came too early, but luckily Joe drove up. Aubrie came with us this time, and she just slept in the back the whole time. I wish I could have stretched out and fell asleep like she did.
When we got to the base, it looked a little overcast, but Joe said it would burn off. I was enjoying the hike, and was in much better shape than last time. I never needed to stop within the first hour. We had to take two little breaks for Aubrie, but she was keeping up pretty well. The weather was nice and cool, and we were getting a few sprinkles that felt nice. We were hiking in the clouds, and it was a pretty amazing sight. After the hour mark, however, the thunder started to come. I knew we were doomed. After some very predominate thunder and lightening, we faced the reality that we would have to hike down. About five minutes after making that decision and turning back, it started to POUR! At first we sought refuge under some trees, but seeing that it wasn't letting up, and that the lightening wasn't either, we realized we would have to hike down in the pouring rain. About twenty minutes down, we were cold and miserable, and Aubrie was practically in tears. I kept praying that she could be comforted. Within a few minutes of that, I took a fall, that was comical and Aubrie couldn't stop laughing. That kept her mind of things. Then my brother took a fall, that sent us all in tears of laughter. Earlier in the week, I was reading a book at ways we can deal with our trials. I decided that laughing at this one was the best thing I could do. The whole way down we started making jokes like, "well if I get struck by lightening at least I'll be warm"! Once things were light hearted, it seemed like we were off the mountain in no time. The fact that our bodies were so numb that we couldn't feel the cold anymore, probably helped too!
Once we got to the car, it was a mad rush to get into town and to Target to get some dry clothes. (Another postive way of looking at things, "Hey I didn't get to hike the whole thing but I got some clothes out of it!" ha ha) I'm sure we were quite a sight walking into Target completely drenched. When I got into Target I think the air conditioning got to me, because my body started to shut down. My brother put his dry coat around me and held me for a few minutes, and then I realized that getting Aubrie clothes had to be first priority. We quickly grabbed her some clothes and had her change into them, while I picked out something. Finding pants in August wasn't the easiest task, but I needed the warmest thing I could buy. I finally found some pants, before my body completely shut down, and Aubrie and I came out of the dressing room, with wet clothes and tags in our hands. The dressing room attendant didn't know what to do, so she called an employee to escort us to the register. Do we really look like thieves?! LOL
We then left Target and got a nice breakfast, and the first thing we all ordered was a cup of hot chocolate, oh and I requested we not be seated under a fan! Joe kept apologizing for his misjudgement in the weather, and he felt really bad. Honestly, it wasn't the ideal hike, but it was an experience that will be much more memorable, and will give us a laugh for many years to come. Anyone can say, I climbed Mt. Humphries, but not anyone can say I hiked Mt. Humphries, got drenched, was so close to lightening I swear I felt my body tingling etc. etc!
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