The adventure continues...

When last I left you, Barrett and I had conquered Sharp Top and we're foolishly confident about our ascent of Flat Top.

We enjoyed the peaceful, flat leg between the two mountains, reflecting on how awesome we were and how unlikely our death was.

Doesn't this look peaceful? Honestly I think the lodge should look a lot classier, but the lake is very pretty.

The map and directions Barrett had brought with him did warn us that the first part of the trail up Flat Top would be very steep with very few switchbacks. But then, as I read it, we were supposed to hit a more gradual slope with beautiful flora and fauna and all that good stuff. (The "as I read it" section of that is an important point...I read it wrong.)

The directions were not lying about the steepness of the first section. As we dragged our nearly lifeless bodies up the sharply pitched gravel trail, I could barely admire the pretty trees and whatnot due to my deep conviction that at any moment I would simply need to give up.

When we hit a bend in the road, I convinced myself this was the more gradual section, and everything was now going to be fine. It was pretty, that is for sure.

See, pretty! And not too steep looking, right? Wrong.

Only later did I realize I'd been reading the sheet wrong, and what it actually was that the majority of the 1.8-mile climb was steep and direct with very few switchbacks. I have never threatened to punch a mountain in the face more than I did on that hike, and I frequently threaten to punch things in the face.

There were some butterflies along the way, which were nice. It took me a really long time to get a good photo of them (I am not good at cameras), but my attempts were a good excuse for a break, at the very least.

Not a great photo, though you can sort of see there are some butterflies. They're sneaky.

Better photo. Look, butterfly!

After a terrifying dog encounter (I'd rather not talk about it, mostly because it was really not terrifying and I just acted kind of bitchy because, well, tired) and more "false summits" than I'd care to recount, we finally reached the top! To celebrate, we sat on the rocks for a very long time, and then took some pictures. Wild and crazy, right?

Pretty sure these birds were disappointed we didn't drop dead for the devouring.

The view was pretty worth it, though, even with all the near death feelings.

And then we hiked back down. The end.