Day 2

We watched the news on Thursday night and knew that it was supposed to be extremely stormy on Friday. We made sure we were a little more prepared for the rain and cold this day. We got up early, ate breakfast, made lunches and then headed about 20 miles to the Max Reid Trail. This was such a gorgeous trail. This was definitely Bryce and myself's favorite all time trail. This first 13 miles takes you over the creek about 15 times. The trail is just wide enough to fit a four wheeler through. Marilyn described it best when she said "the trail looks like it is a path that has been carved right up the mountain through the trees. I love trails that are lined with trees, especially quaky aspens. When we got up to the top, we decided to put on our rain gear because it was getting darker and darker by the minutes. We stopped and took a group picture before we headed up the "rocky" path. There is a spot in the trail that is just big boulders and its fun to go over. By the time we got to the top of that trail, it started sprinkling and my hands were freezing.
We headed back down to an old mine that was there in the 1800's. There was a cabin there where a husband and wife raised their 10 children and housed the workers upstairs. It was still a pretty sturdy cabin considering it was that old. Roger, who was our trail guide and leader most of the time, really wanted us to go up to the 12,000 foot pass. About a mile into it, it started down pouring, so we pulled over under some pine trees to try and get some relief from the rain. We ate lunch here and waited for that rain storm to pass. After about 20 minutes, the rain stopped and a small piece of the sky was blue, so we decided to take off up the trail.
There were so many different landscapes and different types of mountains. Some were really sandy, others had red rock and many were covered in pine trees and aspens. When we got to the top of the pass, the wind was blowing good and it was quite chilly up there. I took a few pictures and told everyone I would see them at the bottom. My hands were freezing, so Nicki and I warmed them by the exhaust pipe. Bryce led us back down the mountain and he was going a pretty good speed. When we got to the part where we could go back to our original spot or go a different route, a huge lightning strike hit near us and it thundered really loud. We took off and headed back. We were going around 25 mph and by this point the rain was coming down good. I was trying to stand up for most of it, because I didn't want to soak my crouch again. It didn't work. When we got back to the trail head, the rain was sprinkling and we were all soaked. We made up our minds that it was time to head back to the trailers. By this time, we had been out on the trails for 6 hours and it was a fun ride, but dangerous to be in the storm. We had 13 miles back down the windy and beautiful trail. There was one part of the trail that was a little steep and slippery, but we all made it through safely.
On the way down, those puddles of water had turned into big puddles of water. When we went through them in the morning, I was careful not to get wet. But, on our way down, I was already soaked, so I had a fun time blasting through the water. When we got back to the hotel, Bryce and I hit the hot tub as quickly as we could. We were so cold and it took us at least 15 minutes to finally warm up. I went and worked out in the hotel gym and then jumped in the shower. For dinner, we went to a cabin looking restaurant and the food was awesome! We were so tired after dinner that we headed back to our rooms and crashed for the night