Hiking Thousand Island lake was definitely an adventure. I don't think any of us could forget the merciless mosquitoes! Poor Whitney seemed to get it the worst and had to hike around with a make shift burqa covering! After it was all over Emily and I had a competition to see who had the most bites. I don't remember who won but no joke I had 100 bites just on one side of my right calf. Even these wretched mosquitoes weren't bad enough to take away from the absolute beauty of this place. The greatest visual was walking over the crest to see the glimmering turquoise lake with the hundreds of tiny islands inviting you down.
The first night we camped we were all convinced there was a bear outside our tents only to find out it was fat Nevada snoring. When we reached the snow we all took turns dunking our heads under run off nearly passing out from the shock of it, then going back for seconds! Emily was brave enough to swim in the lake but I wasn't; it was so cold just touching it burned my skin. One of the brothers and Nevada switched off carting up two huge cans of Denizens Chili only to have it burned beyond eating because of the thousands of mosquitoes attacking me. I felt so bad, but it was still pretty funny. It was so much fun crushing the high altitude snow for my first time and watching it turn pink from bacteria. I think it is great how most of us had to put SPF cherry chap stick on our faces because none of us had sunscreen and we were so burnt. I loved hearing Matthew tell us his great idea for a science fiction story as we sat exhausted around the campfire. I think I remember packing a sleeping pad only to have it "borrowed" by Matthew both nights :), but to be fair he was carrying all my food. Thanks for the memories, I Love you big Brothers!
