I would like to first thank everyone who has helped me during my summer campaign. You guys are great! Each and every one of you has shaped me to become the person I am today. I will miss all of you tremendously.
Last week I hiked Lone Peak. It is my favorite peak to stand on in the Wasatch range. I knew I was going to summit the peak before I leave on this grand adventure. It is a difficult hike that is over 6 miles up and a gain of 6,000 feet in elevation. I started this beast of a hike at approximately 2 pm. This was probably the worst time to start this hike. It was a blistering 95 degrees outside. Scaling the side of this mountain with a 30 pound pack of equipment was hard, very hard. My buddy and I took a break about half way up and just looked at each other with our red hot faces and completely drenched clothes. “Why are we doing this to ourselves?” I had a terrible stomach ache, ripped my new shirt to shreds, got an uncomfortable blister, and I felt like crap. I realized why I was doing this to myself. Adventure. I wanted to go on an adventure! Was I supposed to think that during my adventure there were going to be no problems? That it would simply be an escalator to the top of this mountain? Of course not. I finally realized that I was just complaining for no reason and simply had a bad attitude. I chose to do this to myself. After many granola bars and water breaks, we finally made it to the summit. When you are on top of this mountain, you feel as if you are on top of the whole world. I thought about what I had done to get to this point. Would I have wanted it to go any other way? No. All of those small trials made my experience.
I was thinking a lot about my trip while I was on this hike. I tried to prepare and get everything I needed for this hike. No matter how nice my equipment is, or how prepared or unprepared I was, getting to the top of that mountain was going to be hard. I can prepare as much as I want for my trip to Ecuador, but it is still going to be hard. There may be a couple days where I ask myself, “why am I doing this to myself?” , but I hope when I am leaving Ecuador with future memories of joy and sadness, I will eventually say I wouldn’t have wanted it go any other way!
