doing hard things

Poster is the tired looking one on the left.

It took us 6 hours to get to the top of this, the highest mountain in Maine and the end of the Appalachian train or the beginning if you are heading for  Georgia. Neither Ann or I had climbed anything like it of had any real idea of what we were getting into when the idea came to us. It started with a very steep three hour hike. Then it turned into a climb which I believe is when you are using your hands nearly as much as your feet. We bear walked across the knife's edge between Pamola and Katahdin which is only 1.1 mile but seemed much longer as there were steep drops on either side of the ridge which were thousands of feet. I figured that if I fell I would have time to read the newspaper before I hit the ground at the bottom. When the nice couple we met at the top took this picture we thought we were almost done. We finally got off the trail after 11:00 having walked about 3 hours in complete darkness.

 I was very concerned about not being able to make it as I ran out of water and began getting cramps in my legs from dehydration at the beginning of the climb down the rock slide down the side of the mountain. Ann was terrified and climbed very slowly. I had to go ahead to get water which I found dripping from a rock a half mile down the climb. I used a cliff bar wrapper as a cup to get enough water in me to go back up and make sure she was still climbing. She was. We slowly got to the treeline at sunset. The ranger a mile on at Chimney Pond loaned us a couple of flashlights and a long sleeve shirt for Ann who was getting cold. We fille up on water and walked through the darkness down the rocky and technical trail and I managed to fall three times.

It was not fun or necessary to make this climb. Much of the time I wanted to quit or abandon Ann for the sake of my own fear and safety. I was not prepared.  We were on the move from 8 AM to 11 PM and I was exhausted at the end. The trail and the mountain have no memory of me but the climb changed me. I know less about the world and more about myself. Hard things work on us.