Fatra Mountain Hike

Wow Wow Wee!!!! So, the Fatra Mountain Hike was a lot more than ALL OF US expected! Even the tour guides! It was supposed to be about 5 K (3.1 miles) but ended up being about 4 or 5 miles.. It was pretty serious.. We ended up taking an hour longer than expected to finish the entire course. It was very intense and very hard, but very fun once we were done! ;) The picture of tired Nikki or the one of Brandon and Rachel flipping off the mountain pretty much sum up the experience. It was apparently a 'beginner's course' which was all kinds of WRONG WRONG WRONG! Beginning what? PROFESSIONALS!??!! At one point, there was a chain that we had to hold on to and climb between rocks using essentially arm strength only. That was the hardest part for me. I have NO upper body strength! ((But some killer calves from those stilettos!)) haha* Anyways, the mountains were BEAUTIFUL!!! I am really glad that I didn't wear a dress this time though! ;) I was actually dressed pretty appropriately.. Except for the fact that the guides told us to dress SUPER WARM so that we could be prepared for the 'snowy mountains.' Instead it was HOT HOT HOT! Hence the tank top I'm wearing.. The pic at the top is of the first few people of our group at the top of one of the stopping points. There were about six or seven of us (out of the thirty something people) who were leaders of the pack the entire time.. It was really a lot of fun! It was ALSO a VERY GOOD workout! ;) There are two videos that I uploaded: The first is of a time when Brandon and I were in the front of the pack. When we had a pretty good lead, we would stop so some of the others could catch up. We would try to find a lookout point because it was s0o0o pretty. This particular lookout point, I opted to stay put.... I had a bad feeling about the rock that we were about to climb... Turns out, I was right! The thing started collapsing as soon as Brandon started to climb down! Luckily I was there with a camera! haha* I screamed at one point, and worried that my group would freak out after hearing it.. One of the rocks landed right on my foot, which was great! ;) NOT!! The other video is of a point in the hike where I ask Brandon how he is doing.. He's good.. I felt like I was going to die! It was so intense and s0o0o uphill the whole time! ;) We did go downhill at the end... Wait... I should reiterate that it was certainly not a hill.. So, I will rephrase that.. We did go downMOUNTAIN at the end.. That was scarier for me than the climb up.... At one point I slid right down on my butt. It was pretty scary.... We we got down, we all chilled out on a grassy area before going to the bus.....The pic at the bottom is of me doing just that.... laying on the grass, with my knees propped up, looking at the mountains.. It was breathtaking... Literally.. ;)