On sunday I and 23 other kids on project voluntarily woke up at 2 am, and drove to a trailhead with our packs on our backs and headlamps on our head to hike up a mountain with the goal of catching the sunrise over the lake. A simple sunrise hike was what I anticipated. To be honest, I only got 2 hours of sleep before embarking on such a hike, but was in such good spirits going into the hike my tiredness just naturally dissipated! We all set out up the trail and the "hike" quickly became more of a "climb". We were gaining altitude very rapidly, and climbing up this steep trail for hours, my body did not agree with what I was doing. About an hour into it I got incredibly altitude sick, with every step my body threatened to up-chuck my breakfast. Which it eventually did on multiple occasions. Because of that I fell behind the pack a little and some other people fell back with me. We simply had to go slower cause I was sick and some kids were having breathing problems. We tried to keep our spirits up as the hike got harder and steeper… Many jokes were made about our sickness. Which helped, but it still was a hard hike. Multiple times as I looked up at the practically vertical sheet of rock and rubble in front of me I wanted to just stop, stay where I was, and convince myself that wherever that was had to "do" cause I wasn't going to make it. I thought that so many times in the 3 hours we climbed, reduced myself to tears at one point. But a bigger part of me wanted to defeat this monster I was climbing, and would not accept defeat. I had supportive friends as well who kept encouraging me and telling me to keep coming. Even the last half hour of shaky boulder climbing on our hands and feet while I was throwing up was not enough to deter me from making it to the top. Against my body's natural will I climbed the mountain in time to see the sunrise with the rest of the group. And I can say it was one of the most breath taking sites I've ever seen. I could have sat up there all day and marveled at God's amazing creation. Except my stomach couldn't hold itself down so I was among the first to start the treck down…. Which was equally challenging, for different reasons. We were now climbing down a mountain face on our hands and knees, battering our feet, ankle joints, and knee joints, while sometimes even taking on a new form of surfing by sliding down the rubble on our sides! Spending a few solid hours in the early morning light hiking back down what we hiked up was cool because we could actually see our surroundings! It was no longer a pitch black world we were mindlessly stumbling through, it was a forest fresh with new sun light of the day and gorgeous views of the lake and wildlife.
Overall this hike was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I'm beyond proud I made it through, despite my sickness. I bonded with the people I hiked with, as you naturally do with the people you experience something extraordinary with, or something hard with. But I probably won't do it again :) It was definitely a sweet misery. And it EXHAUSTED me!
After we got back from the hike we had to go to church and try our hardest to keep our eyes open and our heads up… and after that we had to go out in groups a share our faith on the beaches for hours. Needless to say I was one of many walking zombies, I couldn't tell you what my pastor said at church to save my life…. And sharing was hard to focus on. I was just drained, which is understandable. I laid down when my day was all over and don't even remember my head hitting the pillow.
I think God showed me how much strength he gave me, strength I didn't even know I had, and that when I draw closer to him I gain more strength. There is no way I could have hiked a mountain before 9 am and completed all my daily tasks without lean in on him and resting in him.
Here is a picture of the view I worked so hard to see:
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