Last Minute Trip, CO.

Going on a flight all by yourself is pretty boring and I did not properly prepare to entertain myself for 3 hours. I assumed that I would fall asleep on the flight and was I wrong. Don’t ever assume that, that’s where I messed up haha. What I DID loved about being awake during the flight was seeing clouds. I don’t think I will ever get over how beautiful it looks up close.
When my dog passed away, I read a book and on one of the pages it talks about how each dog has their own comfy cloud to sleep on. So I just imagined my little Koko rolling around in the most perfectly soft, cotton candy like cloud bed. I definitely teared up at the thought. I let myself dream for a little that I was so close to her and her cloud home. Just a sweet little moment.

Time for my favorite part of the trip: THE HIKE. GRAYS PEAK.
Oh my… I’m so proud of myself for not giving up even though I wanted to so bad. I don’t even know where to begin with the story. So I do not work out at all. I think the last time I worked out at the gym was August of 2019. I also had a dry cough the whole weekend that would hurt my sides whenever I coughed. So I’m already going into it busted up and not physically ready. Oh, did I mention that the hike was a fourteener? YEAH, YOU READ THAT RIGHT. Elevation of 14,278. When I said I wanted to quit, I wanted to jump off the cliff and rolled back down to car as a shortcut. It was such an experience though. I can’t decide if it was good or bad yet hahah
We left our airbnb at 3 AM to drive there, got there around 5 AM and started hiking. This hike was suppose to take 5 hours all together, up and down. It took our group 10 hours to complete. We dropped like flies, we took tons of breaks, goats wanted to beat us up, hikers kept giving us false hope with how close we were, MAN. My lungs were struggling and the weather was so confusing. There was snow on the mountain and it was windy, but I was in my tank top while the guys were all in their hoodies. It’s the middle of July, my body was never so confused before. The elevation and basically doing knee to chest lunges up got me. My little legs were killing! I told the guys to go ahead of me and if I caught up, then I did, if not so be it. The last hour or so up, I hiked alone and only could walk like 20 steps before having to stop to breathe. I met this very cool hiker though and honestly, he gave me an awesome pep talk about finishing, so thank you guy! By the time I met up with my group I was 5 to 10 minutes away from the top so I had to finish it. Everyone was right, the view is so worth it. I was just way too tired to take decent pictures and kept thinking about how I had to hike the whole thing to get back to the car. LOL. Hiking down was probably harder and you just have to pray that you have strong ankles. Did I also mention I did all of this in some training nike shoes? Not prepared at all! The walk back was killer cause it was at least 93 degrees. I got so sunburned in the last two hours. My shoulders and lips paid their dues the hard way. I actually had a lot of fun with my group though and just proud that I made it. Would I do it again? Honestly, probably not LOL. One time was enough, maybe ask me again in a couple years.

The rest of the trip was a lot less exercise haha. I did have the opportunity to skydive while I was there, but I have no idea why I decided not too. So I do regret that, but it’s okay. That can always be added on to the next trip.
I met some new people on the trip and strengthened my friendship with others, so I’m very happy that I went. I’m ready to plan the next one!

Thanks Denver for the adventure, xoxo.
SALLY ♡ T