If you love someone, set him free. If you have to stalk him, he probably wasn't yours in the first place.*

In September my friend, Zach, wrote on my wall, "D, we have to go hiking so I can propose and you can say 'no'!"  To which I of course replied, "Sounds like a plan!"  (and yes - for my college friends, he called me 'D' and I never even told him about my college nickname).  From there we got to work planning a hike.  I recruited the boy's house (which was kind of cheating because they had already been talking about going on a hike) and Zach recruited people from his neck of the woods.  We had a good sized group - until the week of and people started bailing out.  Ben (Benny when he's participating in physical activities and Brother Ben when he's in a suit and tie) and I were the only ones from Richmond.  It was funny because later, Ben and I were talking and we both were worried the other one would bail out (after Ben's roommates had already bailed) and have to drive all alone.  So - good news - neither of us bailed on the other!

We drove to Mt. Pleasant which is about two and half hours away near Lexington, VA.  We met up with Zach and Lauren (the only two who didn't bail from the western area of VA.  It. Was. Freezing.  I'll admit, I didn't dress in layers like I should have.  I figured a t-shirt and hoodie would be fine because I would warm up.  I warmed up - I don't think my fingers or nose ever did.

I had my new camelbak and Zach let me borrow his hat...which...made me look ridiculous. 

We had tried Mt. Pleasant before and ended up doing some kind of super lame field hike before we found the right trail and then I had to leave so I never got to go to the top.  We got the right trail this time and blazed up the mountain - everything seems a little easier ever since Arizona - but still hard enough that I'm not just jaunting up the trail.

That green patch is the super lame field

We got to the top pretty quickly, and that gave us time to explore.

Where's Waldo

He's really happy because he fit through the hole

and play chess

glamor shots

and get proposed to

Get proposed to and say 'no' - check

Get in a fight...

 or two

And of course (apparently) time to Party Rock.



...busy day.

Just so you know - we are pretending to hold 'the gnome' which usually accompanies us on hikes but Zach left him in the other car...

Where's Waldo - seriously, Ben's clothes made him blend a lot.

And afterwards we stopped for a fancy lunch/dinner at Hardee's.  Yum-o. 

Another successful hiking trip - and the first one where we went to get something to eat afterwards...yum-o.