Hiking at Lake Altus

Friday morning we decided to get up early and hike one of the trails by the lake near our house. I bought a new camelbak backpack for the hike so we wouldn't have to carry everything in our hands. The weather was perfect. It was about 65 degrees and the sun was shining. It was perfect for a hike. We picked the first trail we saw and headed up the mountain. After about five steps into the trail we got lost. The trail initially curves off to the left and leads past a small building and we assumed that it was only leading to the building not past it. So we made our own way up the mountain. We thought we were following a "trail" but we couldn't see any definite signs of a marked path. Dean thought that the whole area there up the mountain was just one big trail. The farther up we went and the steeper it got the more I was convinced that we were not on the trail at all. But Dean kept seeing trash and was sure that other people had been there as well and that it wasn't a big deal so he insisted we keep going. So we did. It was pretty steep and from the knees down my legs were burning after about 10 minutes and I had to take a few breaks. It's a good thing I had my backpack and lots of water in it. I don't know why I never took my fear of heights into account before the hike but I sure did once we got started. Some of the way up was pretty steep and looking down was not a good idea and I got pretty scared. Dean just laughed and kept on walking ahead. But we finally made it to the top and the view was amazing. The mountain we climbed was right on the lake and we could see the lake and all of its surrounding mountains for miles and miles. We took some pictures at the top and I was one picture away from a 360 panoramic view from the top when the batteries ran out. I was so mad. Half the reason for going hiking was to get some cool pictures. So we took a short break at the top to take in the view and headed back down. If I thought it was scary going up it was nothing compared to going down. I spent the first half of the way down sliding down on my butt and hands. But after a while my hands started to hurt so I decided to stay on my feet. Dean slipped and fell a couple of times on the way back and scraped up his leg and arm a little but nothing too serious. Just enough to make me question his decisions leading me down the mountain. Finally we got down the mountain and decided to see if that trail we saw was the hiking trail or just a trail to that building and sure enough it was the hiking trail. Maybe next time huh? I think this might be something we do quite often.

This is the mountain we climbed: