Every Day in May

So I had an interesting weekend.  I went to the Adirondacks and hiked one of the high peaks.  Allen to be exact.  When Brendan first brought up the idea of hiking the mountain I thought it would be a good idea to push myself.  I don't usually do those things - mostly because I figure I'll be the slowest one and hold everyone back - but I really wanted to give it a try.  Then I found out it was going to be a 12 hour hike.  I was ready to back out of the trip but then thought that's what Every Day in May is about - trying different things and getting out of your box a little bit.  It turned out to be a nice weekend but the hike was a different story.  I didn't do too bad on the way up.  We had to hike 5 miles back to even get to the mountain.  Once we were at the bottom of Allen it sill wasn't that difficult.  Not much elevation at first.  Then we started climbing up.  I was pretty tired by the time we were getting close to the top.  In fact, I didn't hike the last half mile.  Katie and I stayed back and had a snack while Brendan, Marisa and Kevin took off for the top.  I was pretty happy to stay where I was.  I was really worried about hiking out in the dark and being the slowest I had already cost some time.  Besides, I knew I was going to need some energy to get down this mountain.  So Katie and I sat there contemplating the 7 hours we still had left to hike...and heard thunder in the distance.  Once we were all back together we had to make good time.  We had been hiking up a brook/creek bed and it was pretty rocky.  The rain wasn't going to make the descent easy.  Luckily we were off the rocks when the rain hit but not so lucky we had to hike in a downpour for a few hours.  I can honeslty say I have never been so miserable.  I was tired, soaked and terrified we would end up in the dark.  I just couldn't comprehend the hours we had left to hike.  I kept thinking the whole way that I couldn't do it.  The thing is I couldn't NOT do it.  I just wanted to sit in the mud and feel sorry for my situation but that wouldn't help anything.  It certainly wouldn't help me get back to the cabin.  I couldn't find one positive thought in my head.  I didn't even notice when it stopped raining.  I did notice when Brendan yelled back that the van was straight ahead.  It was 8:45 at night - we had started at 6:30 that morning - and it was starting to get dark.  I have never been so happy to see a van.  It was a quick trip to the cabin, a nice shower, wonderful dinner and then to bed (didn't even do the dishes).  Man that felt good to lay down.  I thought I wouldn't be able to move the rest of the weekend but I felt pretty good.  Believe it or not we even went kayaking on Sunday on the Hudson River.  Turned out to be a great weekend.  Now, I may never hike for 14 hours ever again (I mean ever) but I certainly learned a lot about myself.  It doesn't matter how long your journey is or how difficult or even how adamant you are that you can't do it...you actually can.  You just have to keep going.  You can't sit down and feel sorry for yourself.  There are other people in the same situation that you are.  It helps if you have friends along the way and when you get to the end...it's all the more worth it because of the struggle.