Lincoln Lake needs a lightning rod

Maybe it is just me, but I generally think I am going to die....frequently. These situations arise in instances such as yesterday. When we reached the parking for Lincoln Lake the clouds in front of us were coming at us, the clouds behind us were coming at us and the clouds on the side of us were coming at us. There was mass confusion in the clouds. But straight above was blue sky so I said, yeah sure and hiked in. It was mildly worth it because I fell off of unshackled with my heel on the lip going for the darn jug. big progress. Then the clouds starting rolling in, and by in I mean up the canyon from the lake and down the canyon from the ridge and from EVERYWHERE. visibility went to about 20 feet..ok more like 200 feet. 

impending cloud of doom

It was then that we saw another human. Ivo. He hiked down into the cloud mess, and missed the invisible cloud covered boulders and ended up at the lake. That is how confusing it was up there. 

looking off toward small arms from unshackled

beautiful view of lincoln lake from unshackled

About two minutes later...murder death kill lightning. it actually could have been a lot worse, but it was enough to cause concern, and uncontrollable shaking all over my body. It is like this reaction my body has to lightning in talus. I really don't want my body to do this to me and it certainly doesn't consult me before acting this way. It's like, oh thunder in the distance?...must shake uncontrollably and look like an idiot. When the lightning is really close then it is just over...even my jaw gets the jitters and my brain thinks, I am going to die. I blame all of this on Jamie Emerson. 

So we hunkered down under unshackled to wait it out. I stood on two crashpads just to be extra safe. I didn't feel very safe. There was one really great one where we all saw the flash then went "wah"...which is the beginning of one one thousand, before I freaking jumped because KABLAM!!!!! It died down a little and we moved up the talus, smartest idea ever. Another storm came rolling through and we were stuck again. Finally this one started to quiet and we were discussing hiking out when SHABANG!!!! It hit the ridge we were contemplating hiking up and arched over hitting the ridge on the other side creating the most dramatic drawn out rumble. Ok then..... I guess we will sit here longer....

Finally things really did calm down and we hiked up. As we were hiking up and I was thinking in my head about never ever ever never going back to lincoln lake and wondering why I do this for fun when the most beautiful double rainbow came out brilliantly directly over the lake. More leprechauns!!!!!

Or wait a minute..what we have here is a classic case of bear vs. unicorn. Who is going to get the pot o' gold? Bear is obviously closer and super vicious, but unicorn has super magical powers..

Hiking out

Since most of our day was spent sitting under dripping boulders we decided to summit Mt. Evans to make the most of our day. It was horribly hard work, for the car. We had to climb the last 200 feet to the very top. It was strenuous. I have never been higher than 12,500 until today. The summit of Mt. Evans is 14,240 feet. I actually felt great and with all of the clouds from surrounding storms it was a beautiful evening. 

this is my domain...any leprechauns, unicorns, bloody bears, squirrels!, wolverine, or chirping pika will die mercilessly by my pouncing repeatedly on your face.

oh hey! a climbing photo!