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Peak endurance

A hiker must have thought up that old saying, "Take it one step at a time."
Maybe even a hiker trying to make it to Kearsage pass.

During lunch at a beautiful, serene lake on the first day of the hike last year in the High Sierras, I began to really wonder what I had gotten myself into.
At the high altitude, I couldn't breathe. It was obvious I was going to spend a good part of the hike alone because I couldn't keep up with my trailmates. I was in for an embarrassing as well as painful trip.
But in the just-do-it column: I didn't have any way to get back to Texas for seven days. The backpack of 30 or so pounds had turned out to be not a problem. I had too much pride to just turn around and go back down.
So I stayed on the trail.
Later, Christina told me that she felt she couldn't explain how it would really be on the trail, couldn't really let me know what I was in for. So she figured I'd just have to experience and decide for myself whether I liked it.
It's true, she couldn't have prepared me.
I'd just have to take it one step at a time, thinking about nothing but that one step.
I'd have to just do it.

Posted by at 02:08 PM | Permalink