Yesterday I went hiking with a bunch of my university chums. It was great fun, although at the end my poor little legses started rebelling. Particularly my knees and hips, which have a tendency to start feeling as if they're terribly arthritic if I walk around for too long. They've only ever done it once before this, so it's not a constant problem, but it really hurts. So now I'm ridiculously stiff and sore even though the hike really wasn't very hard at all.

We went to the ice cave just before Elbow falls. You used to be able to drive right up to the base of the ice cave, but because so many people went there, a lot of people were getting stuck in the cave and had to be rescued. So they closed the road off to cars and now it's about a 5km hike just to get to the cave, then you have to hike UP to the cave, then back. So most of the time was spent trudging the road.

Once we did get up to the cave we had lunch and then ventured inside. Laura and I climbed up a little ridge (one at a time) and ended up 5 feet below the ceiling of the cave, which is like 50 feet up. I could have gotten all the way up and touched the roof, but there weren't any really good places to put either hands or feet, and it would have been even harder to get down, so I decided against it. Then we went to the back of the cave, where if you don't have your flashlight on, it's so dark you can't tell if you have your eyes open or not. About halfway back into the dark part, there's a huge pillar of ice. It goes from the ceiling, which is about 8 feet here, right to the floor. It's just about a foot in diameter too! So we got some pictures of us right up to it. :>

The last time I went there, when I was 12 or so, there was a little pond all around the ice pillar, so we weren't able to get past it, but this time it was all dry there and so we went back even farther. Then, the ceiling slanted down to the right and the floor sorta came up to meet it, so you had to squish your way in between the floor and ceiling and then there was a little chamber type dealy on the other side. Right when you got through, there was a wicked draft and it was coming from another room that was even harder to get to. You had to shove yourself through a 6 inch crack in the rocks. Taryn went through first and we got a picture of his feet just as he was going through. It's an awesome picture! Becuase it looks like the rock is solid and there's no opening, but there's these feet sticking out the bottom. So then myself and another girl named Andrea went through. Then there was another hole in this room that Taryn explored, but there was nothing else there, so Andrea and I didn't bother going in and then we all smooshed ourselves back out to where everyone else was.

Then we decided that a good worship song was appropriate, so we all turned off our flashlights and sang "God of Wonders". It was really cool though, because after coming out of the smooshy passage, my hands were so cold I couldn't feel them at all, but when we were singing, I suddenly felt really warm and my hands went back to a normal temperature immediately. :> And then, on the way back down the mountain I was skreeing, (or, that's my term for it anyway) which is basically sitting down on your feet and sliding down the mountain on all the loose rock. At one point, I was standing and just sorta walking down because the rocks were too big and sharp to go skreeing on, but I lost my balance and fell backwards. And amazingly, there were two completely flat rocks exactly where my hands landed, instead of jagged, sharp ones which were EVERYWHERE else. It was awesome.

On the way back down to the path, we came across Fernando. Fernando is our butterfly. We were about halfway down the mountain when we stopped to wait for everyone else. Then this little blue butterfly (Fernando) landed on Amy's finger. And then proceeded to fly around all of us and land on everyone, except Taryn. We decided this was because Fernando was a boy. Then everyone headed out again, except for Amy because she was putting more sunscreen on. Then she started back down and Fernando followed her until she was 3/4 of the way down. It was cool. Anytime Fernando wasn't sitting on someone's finger, he'd be fluttering around everyone's heads.

So then we got back to Calgary and I went to a BBQ with all the young adult type peoples from my chuch. I had to have a nap there though because I was so tired from hiking. Then we went to watch the fireworks. We went up to Cougar Ridge and they had barricades set up because they didn't want Cougar Ridge to become a parking lot, but I decided I was going to go and see if I couldn't somehow get in because there was NOWHERE else to park. So I went up to the guy with the intention of telling him I lived there, but he just asked what address I was going to. So I said Cougar Ridge Drive (I was just blindly assuming there was a Cougar Ridge Drive) so he said to go on through. Then I did end up parking on Cougar Ridge Drive anyway. Or rather, a little street OFF of Cougar Ridge Drive called Cougarstone Cres., but anyway. Same thing. So then we sat down at the edge of the little lake there and had front row seats to the whole show. It was great.

On the way to the BBQ, I was stopped at a light and the car next to me had an Aaron look-alike in the backseat. It was crazy. He looked just liked Aaron. He even had the same glasses!! At first I had to make sure it wasn't actually Aaron, but this dude had longer sideburns and smaller guage earrings. Plus the guys parents, who were in the front seat, were not Aaron's parents. Apparantly, some guy came up with this theory that because there are so many people in the world, chances are that there's someone else who you aren't related to at all, but looks exactly like you. So I think I found Aaron's.

I can't believe I still haven't gotten over Aaron. It's nuts I tell you!! Neurg.