Hiking = Life Lessons

We ate an over-the-top-hearty brunch at Patty's Eggnest.  Like 100,000 calories each.

Then we burned them all up.

Earlier, when Adam was deciding on a hike, I told him I wanted an EASY hike.  Easy.  As in not steep.  He found several and we picked one.

Then there was a fork in the trail.  There was the Barlow Point trail or the other trail we'd talked about.  The Barlow Point trail was a little over a mile long.  And it ended in a vista.  The boys wanted to do that.  Emma agreed.  We all agreed.

What were we thinking?

My ears popped on that trail.

It was steeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeep.  As in not easy.


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The worst thing (and I'm normally SUCH a patient person) was that it just kept going.  Whoever measured it to be a little over one mile missed a few zeroes.  It was hundreds and hundreds of miles.  All uphill.

Our sons are mountain goats, especially Braeden and we kept hollering up to him, "What do you see?"

He'd cheerfully call back, "More switchbacks."

I said, "This is crazy.  I don't care about the view.  Send me a postcard."

Adam kept encouraging me.  "We have to be almost there."

So I'd walk a little further.  Then I found a nice moss covered rock and I'd gone far enough.  Mark and I sat down and I said that was that.  I found a sucker in my pocket and handed it to Mark (but not because I had to bribe him to be my friend...it wasn't like that).  Adam was up the trail a ways, splitting the distance between me and the mountain goat offspring, being the good dad/husband and keeping an eye on all of us.  He yelled down, "There's a nice spot to rest here."

I said, "No.  I'm staying here."

He called up to Braeden and Emma and faintly, in the distance, I heard them say they'd reached the top.  I dragged my aching self off my lovely moss covered (though slightly damp) rock and made it the rest of the way up the trail.

The view?  Not worth it.

It was nice.

But not worth it.

So as I was walking down the trail, considering the damage I was giving my poor knees with each jarring, steep step, I wondered what lessons I could learn from the experience.

Endure to the end.

Know what you're getting yourself into.

Surround yourself with encouraging people that won't let you give up and stay put on your mossy (though slightly damp) rock.

Have a destination that you know for a fact is worth it.

These are all good lessons.

I think the most important lesson for me though:  have a big bottle of Advil at the ready when you get home.

A big bottle.



In addition to not being smart enough to take the easy trail, we were not smart enough to take our camera.  We met a nice couple at the top of the trail that are from Darrington who took the above pictures and emailed them to me.   They are hiking all the trails and have created facebook pages about their discoveries:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Darrington-Washingtons-History-And-Stories/125354857498575?ref=ts

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wildflowers-Of-The-Darrington-Washington-Area/121388484542971?ref=ts

http://www.facebook.com/DarringtonWashington