Even on a trip to Europe, if there is a mountain to be climbed, Caleb will insist that we climb it.
Snowdon Peak in Wales was on the docket for this trip. We had done quite a bit of research about the various trails that could take us to the top and since weather in the UK can always be a question, we chose a slightly longer trail with less steep drop offs.
When we reached the trail it was raining lightly and a bit cloudy.
After climbing a few fences and walking at a fairly brisk pace for about 30 minutes in the rain, the hike looked like this. Almost fogged in and still raining.
At this point Caleb said that maybe we should walk for an hour and if there was no change in the weather, then we would turn and head back down. Already to hike was climbing steadily and Caleb was keeping us moving at a fast pace, but there was nothing to see except the occasional sheep and lots of grass and rocks. We saw a few people on their way down who looked soaked and miserable, which didn't give me a lot of positive thoughts.
Finally after about 55 minutes of hiking, I stopped for a minute to rest my legs and turned around to find that the clouds were finally moving on a bit and the view was opening just enough to give us hope. We continued for a few more minutes and were rewarded with this.
It doesn't really look like Caleb is even happy that they rain stopped and the view started to open up so much more... Oh wait, he was like a kid in a candy store... and he started walking even faster hoping we could beat any other bad weather to the top.
We kept on at drill sergeant pace with Caleb dragging me up the mountain as it continued to get more steep. We reached the spot where the trail passed under the railroad track and finally began to climb a ridge with views on both sides. The next section was by far the hardest and steepest part of the hike, so I tried not to stop and just kept trucking on while Caleb took some pictures.
There were several rescue helicopters that circled around us in training maneuvers. It was crazy how close they came to us, but I didn't flag them down to give me a ride.
Finally when we thought we would turn a corner and reach the top, we found out we still had another 15-20 minutes of climbing, so we did take a break to admire the view as the clouds seemed to be moving back in. It was hard for Caleb to slow down, but this was one tough hike even at a slow pace, and we chose to keep away from the word slow.
Finally- as the wind picked up and the temperature dropped by the pure exposure of the peak, we climbing the last steep and rocky ridge and made it to the top. We soon realized we would not be strolling up the steps to the summit and basking in the view as the winds tried to snatch us right off the mountain. Not to be completely deterred, we crawled on hands and feet to the summit and sat down to take this great picture. We could barely keep our eyes open, and I definetely couldn't even see what the photo looked like.
While Caleb stayed sitting trying to keep his phone in hand, I crawled to the marker and stood up gripping it with legs and one hand and snapped a blind photo of the view. Then a quick shot down of the summit marker, and then dropped to the ground and we got down from there a quickly as we could crawl.
Our slightly less panicked picture from a little lower with just a little less wind.
As soon as we started down the rocky ridge again, the clouds moved in quickly and we were suddenly staring at a very cold fog. The visibility was quite low, so we took the first mile and a half at jog to get out of there.
It took quite a while to clear the clouds and just one stop to rest the legs and then heading on down.
And once again we lucked out... On the way down, after we were low enough to get out of the clouds, the sun smiled on us and we got to really see what Wales was like on a blue and sunny day. For at least a blue and sunny hour. It was gorgeous, and even though our legs were tired, we made good time getting down and soaked in the views.
Not a moment that is easy to forget.
We finally made it back to the road and jogged down the 2 miles to the village below. We made the total hike of 11 miles in about 3.5 hours. Only my handsome drill sergeant can get those results with a 3600 feet elevation gain. And then he stopped to pick some blackberries for energy at the end.
This amazing hike was also a favorite for both of us on the trip. It was an exhaustingly amazing time to see the country this way.
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