She woke up at 5am hoping to get to the trailhead before sunrise. The limited parking spots get filled pretty quickly once the sun is out. She checked the weather app on her phone and it said sunrise is at 6.30am that day.

“Great” she thought. This could be both a sunrise and sunset hike. She loved watching the sunrise in the morning.

She pulled off the comforter and slipped her feet into her house shoes. They felt cool on her feet. The feeling woke up her senses.

She walked to the bathroom quietly, trying not to wake up her partner who was still deep asleep.

She walked towards the toilet bowl and it lit up. It was so bright against the darkness of the room. Her eyes hurt a bit while they adjusted to the light. It was her partners idea, getting a toilet bowl light. A good idea she admits silently. She did not have to find the toilet bowl in the dark or turn the bathroom light on to find it whenever she woke up to pee at night.

She felt better once her bladder was empty. She quietly tiptoed out of the room trying not to make any sounds. Her partner had work in the morning and only functioned on eight UNINTERRUPTED hours of sleep. It was very important. They’ve had discussions about this because she often woke up in the middle of the night unaware she was being too disruptive.

She walked into the laundry room and grabbed her hiking clothes and shoes. She usually set up everything in the laundry room the night before. This was a concession she made to avoid going through clothes in her closet and waking up her partner.

In the kitchen she filled up her bottle of water, added one electrolyte pack and headed for the door.

“I forgot my headlamp” she says and turns back. Mid stride she stops because she remembers it’s in their bedroom. She cannot go back in now. That will cause too much noise. Even though she tries her very best, she could never move around their bedroom when her partner was sleeping without being TOO LOUD.

She walked to the garage and got into her car, pulled up the trailhead directions on her phone, and backed out of the garage.

The drive to the trailhead took longer than she anticipated. The construction crew on the roads were already at it. And of course the early risers who also preferred to hit the mountains before sunrise were on the road with her.

At the trailhead she felt lucky that she was able to snag the last parking spot left. She grabbed her hiking back pack and checked the trail map on her phone again. She just needed to verify for the tenth time how long the trail was, 23miles it read.

She set out on her hike at exactly 6.25am. The sky was already lighting up, giving a red, brown and gold hue as the sun began to rise. Thanks to the construction crew hold up, she didn’t arrive at the trailhead in the absolute dark of night. Her headlamps were now unnecessary.

It was mid summer so she knew she had at least twelve hours of daylight to finish this hike. She was committed. This would be her longest hike to date if she ever finished it.

Little did she know it was also going to be her last hike.