"Hike of Death"

I received this e-mail from Ethan on Sept. 26, 2011:

"I'm sorry I missed chatting yesterday.  I was out in the wilderness dying for most of the day.  One of the members of the ward offered to take Elder Hall and I on a hike, and since we generally spend P-day sitting around, we decided to change things up a bit.  So we went a couple hours up into the mountains in our area, and started on the hike."

 (description from Ethan for this picture:  mountains on the drive up to our hike of death)

"It was about 14 miles, and and it was the hardest 14 miles I have ever walked in my life.  We had to walk up and down two mountains to get to a meadow with a spring, and then another two to the final destination."

 Big old tree on hike of death.  Brother Henry standing by it.

 "Me by big old tree on hike of death"

 "I'm giving a thumbs up, but I'm far from happy.  On the hike of death."

Kinda get the feeling that this wasn't just a nice stroll???

 Meadow on the hike of death.

 Tree with tumor on the hike of death.

"I was exhausted after the first mile and a half, when we got to the top of the first mountain.  We started the hike around 11:30 am and got back to Brother Henry's car a little after 8 pm, exhausted beyond belief.  That was literally the third worst experience of my life, right after busting my knee and burning my arm. 

I woke up this morning walking like an old man.  My back, knees, and feet are still kind of sore.  And I rubbed the skin on my inner thighs raw from walking so much, so there's that as well."