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You are outward bounder
"You can feel the muscle knots tightening
in your legs.
And now and and then you reach down to test the
hard lumpiness.
The passes get easier and finally you're
just laughing over them.
Every step and every strain and hard breath and
heart pump is an investment in
tomorrow morning's strength.
You're watching the change with your own eyes
And feeling it under your skin
and through your own veins.
Fibers multiply and valves enlarge and
walls thicken.
A miracle.
At least if the species has lost its animal strength,
its individual members can have the fun of finding it again."
-- Terry and Renny Russell, On the Losse
Invictus
Out of the night that covers me,
black as the pit from pole to pole.
I thank whatever gods may be
for my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeonings of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this palce of wrath and tears
Looms but the horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how straight the gate,
how charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul."
-- William Ernest Henley
Anyway, it turned out that I did a terrific job on that climb. I did very very well, and I got up faster than most everyone. It really was an enormous confidence booster to know that all my hard work was paying off, and that each day was making stronger and able to endure more. After about 5 or 6 hours, we reached the top of the mountain. What triumph I felt!!! Triumph over myself and my fears. I was able. We signed the guest-log-in-a-bottle.
However, I didn't have long to stand there and look down in speechless amazement and the valleys so far below. About 10 minutes after we had reached the summit, the clouds started building and we were forced to begin a descent. The descent was extremely rough and very very scary, but Markian assured us that we were doing much better than the previous patrol. Many times we resorted to sitting and sliding our way down because it was so dangerous. The descent took a total of two hours, which is unusually long.
After we reached the base of the mountain, we remembered that we had to go all the way back to the other side of the base of Storm King, where we had left our backpacks. We were so exhausted!!! Markian and Sara decided that they would go to the lake where we were going to make camp that night, and let us make the journey to retrieve our packs on our own.
So we started straight along a steep slop full of loose skri, but for every step we took, we would fall back down three. It was as frustrating as trying to run through water.
I began to feel a tad nauseous and stayed behind to puke, foolishly not letting the group know. So everyone got further & furher ahead, not knowing I had stayed behind, until the were out of eyesight. Finally Markian found me (I guess he was spying again) and asked me why I wasn't with the group & I said I had gotten sick. He told me to go catch up and I did, and about an hour later we were all at the place we had left our packs. We tried to decide if we should just make our campsite there for the night and risk getting in serious trouble for not going back to the campsite.
We decided against the idea and began the long, stressful hike back the same way, over about 8 ridges (very high hills). THEN it started hail storming and we were sliding and so it was even more torturous to hike.
Of course, we eventually made it. We made another love tunnel and Lee cooked us beans for dinner. Becky started getting sick. Kara & I & Becky sat and girl-talked about our boyfriend histories all night under the tarp. It was cool!