Friday May 25th

I took an extra day off this week to be able to hike with my dear friend Rick. He has been anxious to hike with me on this Journey and up until now our schedules hadn't matched up. They finally did and we drove up Thursday night to get an early start on Friday am. We woke up early to see pretty much nothing across the parking lot as there was pea soup fog and mist. We heard the fog was supposed to burn off and there would be off and on showers during the day. Rick has never been one to be detered by bad weather so...we were off on our adventure. We climbed Hancock  ( 4,420 feet) and South Hancock ( 4,319 feet) over a 9.8 mile loop trail where only the last mile was extremely steep. I was huffing and puffing on the way up wondering if we were going to make it and Rick stayed very positive telling me " you are strong like bull". I was thinking he was full of bull, but I appreciated his unrelenting encouragement over the whole trip. These two peaks where lucky #'s 12 and #13 so I guess it was appropriate that it poured rain as we got to the top and continued until we were a mile from the parking lot. Thanks Rick for keeping me laughing and safe and for the Dales on the hike out! I would like to dedicate Hancock to Arthur Marlin who passed away June of 2005 and South Hancock peak to Frank Szymczyk who passed December of 2005. As I complete each peak I stop to remember those who have died of ALS and those still struggling with it each day. Each dedication keeps me motiviated to keep going.