Freakin' mountain goat trail

Pioneer Peak at a distance

Our fake summit. 

David graciously took all six kids one Saturday so Marianna and I had the day to ourselves.  Shopping?  Spa Day?  Nah, we decided to go on an adventure.  We chose a "challenging" hike and went for it.  We should have known that a "challenging" Alaska hike was going to be a bit different than a "challenging" California hike.  This hike kicked our butts!  We headed straight up this beastly mountain, just like mountain goats. In fact, we were higher than mountain goats because we could see them as tiny little dots down below us!  It was six hours of straight uphill.  It was so hard.  We got to what we thought must be the top because the next peak looked impossible to climb.  We congratulated ourselves, took some pictures, and started heading down until we saw some people on that impossible peak!  We turned around and went to check it out.  Two hours later we were 45 minutes from summitting.  We got nervous about the time and didn't want to get caught in the dark.  That and the fact that Marianna's hair was standing straight out on end - a sign of electricity (lightening...)  So, in an effort to try and prevent David's mountain rescue buddies from having to search for us, we responsibly headed back down.  We have NO pictures from where we had stopped because we were both too afraid to take our hands off of the rock.  It was so steep.  (From 0" to 6400".)   

Our impossible peak

 

We're so high up I can barely look at Marianna to take her picture!

We made it back safe and sound.  It was one incredible day and I am so happy to have a girlfriend like Marianna who would rather do crazy adventures than anything else.  

I love that we tackled this huge, impossible mountain together.