The tale of my adventure up the mountain

So, last night myself and some family members reckoned that we would head up the nearest hilltop(Mary's Peak) to look at the aurora borealis. My buddy had gone there with his girlfriend the night before and seen it and said it looked pretty good.

So, on the way up, we expected it to be pretty busy, but we didn't run into the crowd until we got to the parking lot at the summit. All parking spaces were filled - but no matter, we parked on the road out of the way, and hoofed it the rest of the way.

Problem is, there's a bunch of light pollution from the nearby town, and we're on the southern side. Bit of a hike required to get up to the summit and view the north side. Off we went.

I've never come so close to passing out or falling over. It was actually quite discouraging, all this work in the gym, but my legs were burning and I was stumbling around after just a few hundred yards up the incline. I did make it in the end, but at great physical effort.

We made it to the field on the north side and laid in the grass and looked at the stars for a while. I was able to identify the constellations with Sky Guide, and we had a pretty good view of those. Unfortunately, no aurora. We hung out for about 30 minutes before heading back as it was already midnight, and although I am a night owl, my family is not.

We made it back down and drove out without much fuss, but as we were about to turn out of the lot, a rather loud pickup truck zoomed by, rattling everyone's eardrums, and followed by a lowered Subaru with a spoiler on the back. We rolled our eyes(Who takes a street racing car up to a mountaintop?), but when we got back to town we had a good laugh at their expense. Mr. Truck was pulled over in the parking lot of the local tool store, and as we passed by, a ways up the road his Subaru buddy pulled out onto the road - driving very carefully as to not attract any attention and meet the same fate as his friend in the truck.

Bit of a shame we didn't get to see the aurora, but we saw the stars, and had a decent adventure besides.

Nico