40 x 40 - 27. Climb Hogback

I have lived in this town for almost eight years.  Almost every day I see Hogback Mountain in the background scenery of my life.  I can see it from pretty much any spot in town.  It stares me down on my way to work in the morning.  I have contemplated for years climbing this intimidating mountain. Adding it to my 40 x 40 list only made that goal more real.

During a moment of feeling like I could do anything, I agreed with Scott to climb Hogback.  

I absolutely hate uphill climbing.  I love to hike, as long as it's a flat trail, or better yet it goes downhill.  I am a complete whiner when it comes to uphill hiking. 

Scott is a great cheerleader.  He encouraged me the whole way.  Every time I stopped, he stopped.  I knew in my heart that I could make it to the top, but there were several times I contemplated turning back.  

I think that everyone has those moments in their life when they give up on something and then later realize that they actually had it in them to accomplish their goal.  These regrets follow us for the rest of our lives.  Every time I stopped, I thought of those moments in my life.  I did not want this to be one of them.  I knew I had it in me to check this off my list.

It was actually surprising how beautiful this hike was.  There were tons of different flowers, bushes, and trees.

There were lizards, bugs, and butterflies.

I didn't expect to cross paths with this one.  We had a bit of a standoff until she decided to move off the trail and into the shade of the nearby trees.

This was my view for most of the uphill portion of the hike. 

When I was starting to really believe that we would never actually reach the top, we turned a corner and the lookout tower came into view.  I had suddenly recovered from the last two miles and felt like I could have sprinted the rest of the way.

Proof that we made it to the top!

These goldfish crackers were the best tasting snack!  This smile on my face was genuine, not like the ones I had been faking for the past two hours.

This was the view for most of the way down.  I love downhill hiking!  

Since we took a round about way on the way up, we didn't pass the famous lone pine tree until our way down.

The view from the top was incredible.  We could see the entire town from one spot.  It's very hard to imagine that down below you 40,000 people are going about their day.

The night before we hiked there was a 40 acre fire out in Keno.  That explains the layer of "smog".

Hiking down, we took the trail that basically goes down the face of the mountain.  There is no way that I could have made it up this trail. 

I slid twice going down the trail and Scott slid once.  In hindsight, we would have taken the longer way down just because it wouldn't have been so steep.  

Driving home, looking back at Hogback, I was so proud that I accomplished this!  Every time she stares me down, I will make eye contact with her and let her know that she doesn't intimidate me anymore.  I know that I can make it to the top.  I'm just not sure that I care to again.