Climbing Mount Kenya

The day finally arrived. About 25 students and faculty set out on February 26, 2009 to face our mountain. Read to the end and you'll find out how many made it to the top. :)
The trip would take us 6 days, 2 of which were for traveling, the rest would be hiking, sleeping, hiking, sleeping.... We hiked a total of 24 hours in a period of 4 days. So many prep hikes, black toe nails, sore muscles, dead nerves (some of which I'm still trying to revive!) and many more aches and pains. Memories, memories! Some I rather NOT remember! Enjoy as I retell our "Climbing Mt. Kenya" story. And to think that I, prior to this hike, had considered climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro!



Couldn't tell you what kind of deer these are. We call them Mt. Kenya deer.

It took us about 3 hours to get to our first camp. We are now at 10,000 ft. Breathing is fine.












Unwelcome visitors. They were sort of annoying. We couldn't leave any food outside or else they'd run with it!










There were 10 of us who spent the night at this cabin. It was very cold.












This one was the "King of the Hill."

In order for us to get acclimated to the elevation, we had to do some climbing before we can set out for the "Big (and dreadful) Day." This climbing took us a total of 4 hours.












Climbing the vertical bog. Wow! It was vertical alright!











Scenery as we climb the bog.












Breath taking!

He'll give a thumbs up as long as he has food. He lives to eat!













Just finished his lunch. He eats to live.














Exhausted after a 4 hour round trip hike.












I don't think he woke up to eat supper that day.

Not very happy hikers!




















50 lbs. didn't feel very good on my back. I, too, am not a happy hiker!














Bet you didn't know there are glaciers in Africa!














I think Kyle was about to fall! His back pack weighed about 20 lbs.

Caleb, wishing he was at Mackinders Station.













This was a pleasant sign to us as Mackinders is the last station we'd see before we reach the top. This is also the camp we would spend the night, or half the night as we had to get up at 1:30 am to start climbing to the top. As you can see, numbers have been added to the hiker's dismay. It sure felt like we had 420,000 meters to go!







Only 2, 300 ft. to go!













Rock Hyrax we met along the way. They are so cute!

Kyle and Caleb feeding the hyrax.












Kyle is such an animal lover. I just love this picture of him. They enjoy their time with the rat.












Caleb, just arriving after a 5.5 hour strenuous hike.













Derek, encouraging Caleb, "One more step." Poor kid. He and Kyle did great. I don't think they want to ever do it again. Kyle says he wouldn't mind do it in his Senior year.....may be I'll do it with him. Surely I will have forgotten how hard it was! :)

Eating area at Mackinder's Station.













Friends just arriving after a 7 hour hike. It took us 5 1/2.













Some of our essentials. Thanks to some friends who sent us some U.S. goodies. Priceless.












Cooking noodles. It seemed like that's all we wanted to eat. We brought way too much food. Hikers don't like to go hungry. We rather have carried extra weight than go hungry. We had food to share. We were not as hungry as we thought we would be.

More beautiful sunrising pictures.

We felt like we could almost touch the clouds. Breathing wasn't a problem, we had gotten used to it.











Here we are, finally at the top. It was freezing cold and I couldn't wait to get back down. Some friends and Derek decided to have hot cocoa and hot tang. Have you ever tried it? It's not too bad. I decided to get back down. Less than 20 of us made it to the top. The view was breathtaking.