Hiking The Summit Trail with Sara

Sara and I were going to make it to the top .... 7.2 miles up

On Wednesday, my office shift was from 1:00pm - 8:30pm.  It had been two weeks since I had gotten in a great workout and my body was craving some good exercise.  I knew that I could convince Sara to wake up early to tackle the Summit Trail.  In order to complete the hike and get to work on time, we needed to be on the trail by 7:00am.  The trail is 7.2 miles long and has an elevation change from 6300 feet to 10400 feet.  It is a great hike and a great workout.

Sara taking a water break

The mountain was so quiet and pretty in the

morning.  The were tons of birds chirping

We hiked so early that the hot air balloons were flying

and other neat mountain sounds.  We saw some wildlife and interesting animals.

Deer

Sara and I had set a goal of making it to the top in 3 hours.  This was not going to be an easy thing to do and required us to keep a fast pace up the mountain.  We were pretty impressed with ourselves and feeling "all that and then some" until we were passed by a guy running up the trail.

The guy who passed us running up the trail

There were beautiful views and flowers along the trail.

We were feeling pretty great completing the first 5 miles of the trail but knew that we still had the toughest 2 miles of the hike ahead of us.  The last 2 miles of the hike climb straight up.....ouch!

This is when we knew the tough part of hike was ahead

Looking up at the last 2.6 miles

                                                                                                                                                                                      




It was a great day and a great hike.  We were also happy that we made it to the top in 3 hours and 2 minutes.  We loved the calorie burn. 

On the way back to the house, driving along Moose Wilson Road, we saw a pretty big moose!

Mr. Moose along the Moose Wilson Road