Life in Casper: Day 5

Today, after Dar-Dar and I dropped Mikkola off at work, we decided to head up to Casper Mountain. I was a bit nervous to go and hike on the mountain, but also really excited. I've always wanted to try hiking in the woods, but I always felt like I was too overweight to do it on my own. However, I've been feeling really good as of late. So anyways, Dar-Dar and I drove up the mountain, stopping once to get a good look at the city from one of the viewing points.

Casper from one of the viewing points up the mountain.

Once we reached one of the parking lots, we decided to check the maps posted for the different trails. There were several marked easy, so since I was a beginner, we decided to follow one of theeasy ones. Unfortunately, what appeared on the trails and what was actually there didn't seem to match. We decided to just take one of the paths and see where it led us.

The very unhelpful map.

The mountain was gorgeous. All the trees were tall and seemed almost endless, like a scene from one of those horror movies, except it was peaceful. I enjoyed walking and listening to the birds, the crunch of twigs and dirt beneath my feet, and the faint sound of water somewhere in the distance. I loved it.

The gorgeous trees

We hiked down one of the trails carefully. It was a little steep and I slipped several times going down, but we managed to make it to a little stream that blocked our path. We had two options: either hike back up the hill or cross the stream. Not looking forward to slipping while hiking up that hill, we opted to try and find a way across the stream. Eventually we found a way across by stepping on a couple of big rocks and over some sturdy logs.

The pretty stream we had to cross

Once we made it across, we hiked along the road, once again enjoying the scenery and serenity of our environment. We continued to walk along side the stream, so I made sure to get lots of good pictures of it to share with you all! 

Stream collage!

We eventually made it to one of the other parking lots and I took the moment to use the bathroom and take a woods selfie before heading off to our next area. 

Selfie time!

We decided to follow another path and climbed a bunch of rocks that kind of reminded me of stairs. Once we made it up, I decided to stop and take a few pictures. Then we continued down a blue marked path.

Some of the sights.

Along the path, I felt myself begin to reach the ends of my reserves, but I pushed myself forward. I could tell that Dar-Dar was enjoying it. He used to mountain and rock climb when he was younger. Along the path we found this weird little teepee like formation of sticks. I'm not sure if some hikers put them there or the rangers or...something else.

The strange contraption.

I ended up not hiking much further. I eventually grew to be so exhausted and short of breath, that I couldn't get myself to walk much farther. Da-Dar ended up so far ahead that I couldn't see him anymore. He came back soon after he realized I wasn't behind him and we both agreed to turn back.

More woods

We hiked back the way we came, passing the strange stick contraption, and down to the second parking lot. I snapped a quick picture of the memorial sign and then slowly trudged back to the car. We made our way back down the mountain until I we eventually reached the apartment. Then I took a long 3 hour nap. The rest of the day I relaxed and ate dinner with Mikkola and Dar-Dar, before doing our evening yoga and hitting the hay.

Wyoming Centennial Forest

It was a fun, but exhausting trip. I never dreamed that I'd be able to do something like this, but I was so relieved. I pushed myself to do something I wasn't used to or comfortable with and I had so much fun doing it! I still can't believe I managed to do this. It was a great experience and I hope to get in better shape so I can do more hiking trips for longer amounts of time.

Great hike!