This was my first real hike after being mostly indoors because of the pandemic, and it shows. I was completely out of shape and took frequent breaks. It should've taken 8 hours but it took us nearly 12 hours. Everyone kept passing us, but it was still a great hike.

We started early at around 7:00 AM. There were plenty of cars parked on the street but there weren't that may people on the trail. There were a few people making their down as we were getting to First Water.

It was foggy/misty and we made it above the fogline around 10AM.

Got stung by a bee twice! Once on the way up and then again on the way down. At the same spot! As we were going up, I could hear the faint buzzing of bees. I spotted the bee hive inside hole in the tree. One lone bee starting chasing me. I could feel it and hear it stuck in my hair. Sure enough, I have a bee sting on my forehead right at the hair line. On the way down, I knew exactly which spot the bee hive was at and made sure to steer clear. Still got stung. On my right shoulder towards the back.

Once we got to the peak, we searched everywhere for the USGS survey marker but somehow missed it. We hung around the peak for a little bit checking out the various buildings. Ate lunch, refilled our water and started making our way back down at around 2:45PM. At around 3:15, we saw an old lady making her way up.