The main purpose of this little getaway was to go for a hike, secondary purpose, to relax and enjoy the weekend.

So Saturday morning we were up at about 8:30, had a splendid breakfast, which we all pitched in to help make, and some tea and a chat. We then readied ourselves for a glorious, tough and challenging but stunningly beautiful hike. I even wore proper hiking boots instead of runners. There were four girls and three guys.

The three guys chose to take the shorter, less uphill hike, as two of them were afflicted with various leg problems, like bad knees and a healing sprained ankle. So us girls ridiculed them for wussing out and we decided to take the 6-7 km straigh uphill hike that would take about 3 hours.

The first hour was beautiful, I was tired, but I had lots of water, and the heat wasn't too invasive. We stopped at a creek and played in the cool water, I wet my T-Shirt and noticed some annoying flies that were highly interested in my body. It was a descent into hell from then on.

The higher we got, the thicker the flies got, and they were biting flies.

I am one of these people that mosquitos and things LOVE. I must have particularly sweet blood, or tantalizing sweat because anywhere I go where there are people eating bugs, I get eaten the most. I spent two hours practically RUNNING up 5km of uphill hike in an hysterical frenzy trying to keep the flies out of my ears, nose and mouth, while flailing madly to keep them from settling on my legs and arms long enough to bite me. And oh, they bit me. I was crying and screaming and EXHAUSTED because if I stopped moving, for even a second, I became engulfed in a living cloud of black flies that wanted nothing better than to devour me whole.

We were in hell. We had died and gone directly to hell, where the only inhabitants were black flies and the occasional bee. (One of which stung one of our other poor afflicted hikers). We also found that not only were there biting flies, which kinda felt like a little poke in the leg or wherever, but HORSE FLIES, which don't just bite, but take a chunk of your flesh with them for a snack for later.

To say the least, I made it to the top in record time, having run top speed in hysteria to the top, where the wind was up and the view was STUNNING and the flies relented, if only just for the moment. Up at the top there were apline meadows with beautful blue, purple, pink and white wild flowers, and little mauve butterflies (which I would much rather have been swarmed by) and a view of Mt. Shuksan, covered with snow and glaciers and things. WOW. Was it worth it? HELL NO. You couldn't pay me enough to go up there again.

Needless to say, we went down the short way and did it in record time as well. Oh, and I stepped in mud up to my ankle.

And today, my legs are covered with little itchy spots where I'm missing flesh from my poor depleted body.

I thought I was going to lay down and die, right then and there.

Don't hike, it's bad for you.