My First All Day Hike

Well back from my first all day hike and things did not go as planned. The day started out beautiful. The weather was clear and sunny. My daypack seemed full of important items yet was not that heavy. I was early to our meeting spot (Starbucks) and had time to get my Venti Nonfat Chai! The drive out to the fishbowls was long but uneventful. However, we neared the turnoff to find the actual road to the trailhead was closed (a fateful sign we ignored). It became clear that many of the trails were closed due to winter and the debate was on over where to go. One member of our group mentioned the McGill trail on Mt. Pinos and we arrived to the trailhead to find it looking open and clear.

We all unpacked and began to make our way onto the trail. At some point we ran into snow at various points on the trail. Unfortunately, this continued as we made our way up the trail until there was a lot of snow. That was when I began to have some problems. I slipped and fell a few times and eventually twisted my ankle. The remainder of the hike was on this injured ankle and that only contributed to the difficulty of hiking in the snow. Some of the snow was fresh and powdery. However, some was hard-packed and very icy. Most was on a steep grade. Some of my fellow hikers had trekking poles and they loaned them to me to help with balance. My ultimate conclusion was that my hiking boots may have been adequate for hiking, but were totally inappropriate for snow. I seemed to have no traction at all. Going up the mountain in snow was pretty bad. Going down in the snow with an injured ankle was worse. Pain was not too bad as i think the ice and cold helped make the area numb. However, being very vigilant about your foot placement, limping at times, and continued falls added to my exhaustion and the trip appeared to take forever. We arrived back to the cars around 1:30 p.m. I advised my buddies my ankle was done and I had no more energy for more, but some of our group was hell-bent on more hiking. Fate was with me when every trail they tried was closed! My carpool finally gave up and we headed back home.

My ankle was pretty swollen and beaten up by then so my husband drove me straight to urgent care after I returned home and I am the sad owner of a badly sprained ankle. I was sent home with some crutches and a lovely ace bandage.