Hard.

Today I climbed a mountain. I probably shouldn’t use that word “climbed”, as there was no actual climbing involved. That would’ve required ropes and carabiners and upper body strength. This was hiking but at least by my standards, very strenuous.

My hike started at the base of a mountain next to our valley campsite in the Sawtooth Mountains of Idaho. From our site it didn’t really look that big or tough. But this place has a way deceiving the eyes with its grandness. I’m in decent shape, so i thought I’d make it to the top fairly quickly, maybe 20-30 minutes.

I started climbing, and after the first 100 ft of elevation, I was sucking wind. It should be noted we’re already at 6400 ft here, so the air is considerably thinner than what my lungs are used to. But I had committed to it, and I am more than a little stubborn, so I wasn’t turning back.

The ground beneath was mostly shale that liked to give way under each step, and the dense sage brush made any direct route impossible. After 15 minutes of climbing my lungs were screaming for air and I wasn’t even 1/4 of the way up.

I sat down for a few minutes, taking a look around me. The camper and truck had shrunken significantly but were still easily distinguishable on the valley floor. A few yellow wildflowers hung to the rocky mountainside with shallow roots. A cricket, several shades darker than those back home, jumped nearby. My breathing was getting back under control and my legs felt good to go, so I rose and continued my climb.

The next several hundred feet were no less strenuous than the first, and an additional 20 minutes brought me to approximately the halfway point. Regardless of the slower-than-anticipated pace, I was still enjoying myself quite a bit. On my next break, I noticed a ground squirrel scurry along the rocks and duck into its hole when it noticed my presence. A caterpillar had hitched a ride on my shorts somewhere along the way, and after carefully placing him on the branch of a shrub, I continued on.

Before long the vegetation began to change. Sage became more scarce and was replaced with other shrubs, of which type I have no idea. I did come upon a large patch of what I believed to be laurel. Many of these were taller than I, so I decided to skirt around that patch over to a section of smaller shrubs. At this point the vegetation became very thick. While up to now I had found it easy to navigate footing through or around the plants, here it became quite difficult to find a route forward. It was right around this point I first noticed my lungs becoming more accepting of the lower oxygen levels, for they had stopped burning quite so much. This simple relief in itself provided me enough joy to continue my trek upward. And finally, after nearly 1 hour and 20 minutes of climbing, I crested the top, to be rewarded by the most stunning 360 degree view of the surrounding mountains.

Using gps on my phone I was able to determine I had ascended nearly 1400 ft in approximately 1/2 mile. If my math is correct, this meant the average slope of my hike had been about 27 degrees. I’m not going to pretend that’s some sort of major accomplishment in the world of mountaineering, but for this 36 year old dad who spends most of his time behind a desk, I feel pretty good about it all.

I’m in a bit of a contemplative mood lately, so I couldn’t help but be reminded of a life lesson I’ve been holding to for quite a few years. Just because something is hard doesn’t make it bad. Hard and Bad do not go hand in hand. The climb was hard, very hard, at times quite painful, but I enjoyed the heck out of it! I am so grateful I still have the physical ability to push myself like that. Sure, I’ll be sore tomorrow and maybe the day after, but I hope the soreness only serves to remind me of a time I enjoyed something difficult, stopped to take note of the little beauties along the way, and was richly rewarded for my efforts.