‘humpback’ and ‘sunrise’ share a total of 5 letters.

OVERVIEW

i bet i can visualize every single one of your situations right now as you read this description. you’re probably in class staring blankly into your laptop screen, brain off, eyes crossed, and drool falling out of your mouth already. i get it. suddenly, an email pops on your screen with a statement that is blatantly, factually wrong. you swipe it away like you do the other 30 emails you get a minute from Venmo and Nextdoor (no, I do NOT want to apply to your credit card Venmo, and i CERTAINLY do not want to hear you complain about ‘sketchy’ characters at your door, Jeff from Pantops). however, this email intrigues you. it seems plausible at first, but you quickly realize that ‘sunrise’ and ‘humpback’ do not actually share 5 letters.
you start to count on your fingers. one, two… wait- one….
your professor has already moved onto the next module of the course. you’re screwed. you sit there a few more minutes trying to find another letter they share…..

you begin fall into a trance-like state. you are in an empty, white void. one figure is standing in front of you, back turned towards you. you begin to walk towards it, tapping it on the shoulder. nothing. you go to the front of the figure, only to see the same thing you saw when its back was turned to you. as you begin to contemplate how you got here-

you turn around. it’s me. i stare directly at you and i utter those fateful words….

“hi do you wanna do a sunrise humpback hike on thursday”

yeah. i needed something to reel you in. well, now’s about a good a time as ever, so i have something to confess.
i have humpback at this point probably hundreds of times. it’s such a short hike with a rewarding payoff. i sometimes just take my homework up there and finish it as the sun sets, granted the wind doesn’t blow away everything I have in my hands.
that being said, i have actually never hiked humpback to see a sunrise.

blasphemous, i know, but hey, i’m a fourth year. might as well get it out of the way. i’ve hiked other mountains in the area for a sunrise, but never humpback. the weather is finally supposed to clear up wednesday night, so thursday will be beautiful. it’s calling for perfect sunrise weather. partly cloudy, clearing up as the heat from the sun lifts the moisture from the ground to the skies. hey, we might even have a chance at witnessing a lovely undercast (that is where the clouds are below us at the summit of the mountain).

humpback is very short, but very strenuous. I’m budgeting about 30 minutes for the hike up there. the sun is supposed to rise somewhere between 7:00 and 7:10, so i’d like to start hiking around 6:30. It’s only about a 35 minute drive there, so we can leave slightly before 6. here’s what i’m thinking:

5:45 meet up @ echols (please please PLEASE be on time!!!)
5:56 we leave
6:30 show up and start BOOKING it up top the mountain
7:00 the sun emerges and we all stare at it dumbfounded at the majesty of nature
7:20 or so we head back down
7:50 back in the car!!!
8:30 i will drop you off wherever you need to go 😀

this is open to beginners, but since we’re hiking to see the sunrise, there will be a bit of a time crunch, so as long as you have some hiking experience, that should be fine. we can definitely take a break since humpback is quite strenuous but i would like to be up there by the time the sun rises.

ok. that was a lot. hope 2 see you there!!! 🙂

image courtesy of @poulsondl on reddit