Mean Girls Trip: Day 2

We were up bright and early the next morning and ready to hike!  Daphne had done her research and we knew we needed to be on the mountain by 7:00 a.m. and get started and we estimated that we would be done by about 1:00 p.m.  Jenny's back was hurting and she decided she would stay back at the cabin so the 6 of us headed out.

This was my very first selfie!

After we took the selfie and got back in the car Autumn noticed that her bladder had leaked,  it was almost empty.  (remember this for later).

Next, we started up the mountain.  Not sure I was expecting the "road" to be this bumpy.  On one side it was the side of the mountain and on the other side it was straight down!  I was in the front seat thank goodness and we were bouncing all over the place.  Julianne was in the back with her head between her legs talking herself out of a frenzy.  

We were attempting to drive up to 10,500  ft. because that is where the trail head started and there was minimal parking at that point.  I asked the question we all had, "WHAT IF someone was coming down?  What would we do?" and seriously less than a minute latter it happened!  We were nose to nose with a truck... then a jeep.  

At this point we were all a little shaken up and freaking out!  Julianne had to jump out and get some air.  We finally got passed the first truck, we went close to the mountain and he was on the edge!  NO WAY were we going on the outside.   Had he moved over about 2 inches, he would literally go off the side of the mountain.  We were finally past the truck and the jeep and now there were a few other cars behind us.  

Made it to where we were parking and we were off!  I knew it was not going to be pretty, I was already gasping for air at this altitude!

First of MANY potty breaks.

After hiking a couple of hours and thinking that I was going to die every other step we turned off the road and up a path to get to the top of the tree line.  This folks is where I made the BEST decision of MY LIFE...  Julianne was having a panic attack (she is terrified of heights) and I was literally trying to catch my breath and trying not to pass out.  Julianne and I decided to turn around and go back down.  Julianne kept telling me I did not have to go but a) she was NOT going alone and b) I was DYING and needed to get down this mountain ASAP!

Here we are showing that we made it to 12,000 feet!  YEA US!

Here we are heading back down the mountain.  At first we were going to wait for the rest of the girls back at the car.  We made it to the car and had a snack and potty break and then told ourselves that we WERE NOT getting back in the Suburban to drive back down this crazy mountain, NO WAY!  So after a break and some thinking we decided to google how long it would take us to get down the mountain if we walked since we did not want to drive down or wait at the car for 3 plus hours waiting on the others.  

As we opened the car door we heard something... it was rain!  SERIOUSLY!  We decided to call the girls and check on them and make sure they were OK.  None of them answered so we just left them a message that we were going to walk back down and see them at the cabin.  So, off we went.  

We have NEVER been so happy to see the road!!!

So, 8-9 miles later we were back down the mountain!  Let me just say that Julianne and I became REALLY close on this trip down with the things we did on that mountain!  Our legs were jello and we could hardly move.  We may or may not have held out our thumb a time or two to try and catch a ride.  HOURS later, I cannot even remember how many, we made it to the base.  We called Jenny and asked her to meet us at the hot springs with our swimsuits because we seriously did not think we could make it to the cabin!  She met us there and we jumped in and relaxed for a while before we headed back to the cabin to wait on the other girls to get back. 

We got back to the cabin and were getting worried because we could not get a hold of any of the girls.  We finally heard back from Autumn and Mitzi and their phone was running out of battery and they told us that they had split from Carley and Daphne.  I had plugged my phone in to charge and did not hear it ring but some unknown number called and left a message, it was Daph and she said that her phone had died and she stopped some guy to use his phone.  

Long story short Daph left Carley because Carley was getting sick at this point and could not walk so Daph went ahead to get the car and drive up as far as she could and pick Carley up.   She found Carley  and then they could not even see Mitzi and Autumn.  They knew that the had made it to the summit but Carley and Daph had come down since it was snowing and they were freezing.  Autumn and Mitzi were right behind them, or so they thought... they got lost and could not find the trail.  Daph and Carley charged their phones and then Daph went back out by herself to find them.  A couple of hours later Daph found them and got word to us that she had found them!  

We were so worried and trying to figure out the next step in trying to get a search team out to find them.  When they finally got back to the cabin their were many tears and emotions running wild!  We were all telling what happened to each of us and showing wounds and were physically and mentally exhausted!  We ordered dinner in and we called it a night.