October 18, 2015: North Sister

Kinsey and I hiked North Sister today. We had no idea where we were going and tried to find the trailhead by using the "milepost" which is a detailed guide about specific places along the Alaskan Road System.  The Milepost was a liar. We parked our car where it told us, but ended up calling a friend who has hiked the mountain numerous times only to find that we parked a good 2 miles away from the trailhead. By this time, we had already started walking there so we trekked on until we found it. The climb up was really slick because of all the rain we got, but we hands and kneesed it to the top. Just as we got to the peak, we saw a pack (herd?) of mountain goats scurry down the other side. To feel like we were sharing the same mountain with the goats was a really cool feeling.  After resting, snacking, and chatting with some people we met at the top, we headed back down. Our legs were already tired from the hike up. Adding that to the super slick trails, and we probably had a combined fall total of over 10.  Fell on our butts, fell onto our hands, fell until we caught ourselves with tree limbs, and fell and slid into bushes.  It was awesome. At the bottom, we tried hitch hiking back to our car, but had no takers. Just as we were about to give up, my next door neighbor drove up to us. She and her husband gave us a ride back to our car.  I loved this day.