365 Project - Day FORTY FIVE

I simply got my ass kicked today.

Last month, Jack's cub scout leader set up a hike for the boys at Twin Falls, which is up in the North Bend/Snoqualmie Pass area. It sounded great - 3 miles round trip with a picturesque bridge over the falls on the way. The scout leader's email read, "terrain is up and down with an elevation gain of 300 feet". Sweet, I thought, I could do this hike. I told my sister about it and she said it was easy too - that she had done it in her red coat. It's a woolish dress coat. Easy peasy I though. Little did I know - my sister lied.

What exactly does up and down mean?

In this case, up and down means 'grueling hills and switchbacks up 300 feet, straight down for 250 feet'. Do this a number of times over and over for an overall elevation gain of 300 feet. Oh, and the trail (in spots) was only wide enough for 1.5 people. Couple this with a bunch of little boys and their siblings and parents with the 500 other people wanting to get around you or pass you on their way back. And, there's large river rocks exposed randomly in the dirt and they seem to pop up when you lease expect them; kinda like a whack-a-mole game.

I was sweating my ass off. Face red as a tomato. I was bitching in between gasping for air. Why the hell did I sign up for this shit? I came to this optimistic that, as a family, we'd have a leisurely hike through the woods, view some beautiful falls, walk back while sipping water, no chaffing in sight. I fumed at the women in cute hiking clothes with their little fluffy dogs passing us like they stopped here on their way home from church. My kids would occasionally run back from their position at the head of the pack to check on me and then turn back to RUN back to their position at the head of the pack. They did this so many times, they probably did the hike twice. At one point, while I was walking with Mazie, she looked at me and simply said, "Nevermind...". When I asked her what she was going to ask me, she said, "I was going to ask you to carry me, but it really looks like you can't...".

I'm not sure my knees will recover from this. It might take me a good week to recover overall. One thing that feels good, though, is I didn't sit down once or force myself to take a break. We paused to allow the group to regroup and there was the occasional pause on a corner, but there were other folks with us that took a genuine sit-down, get your snacks outta your backpack break and I just kept trudging away (we did take a break at a viewpoint while the boys did a geocache, but that wasn't my idea).

I'm not trying to toot my own horn here, but I think I was just pissed off and determined enough to not stop. I was afraid if I did, I would turn back any minute. Would I do it again? Maybe - but not unless I was in better shape.