I did it…again!
August 13th 2011
Kathy had told me after a mighty fine buzz around new year that she wanted to climb Mt. Lassen. It was on her bucket list.
So back in January I began hiking to prepare for that climb. When I was 13 and again when I was 14 I had climbed up to the peak and I complained the whole hike up and probably the whole way down. The amount of ‘sore’ was off the charts and I swore I would never do it again. Only stupid people would make that hike willingly.
I made that hike willingly yesterday.
We all met at the gate at 8am and we made it to the trailhead at 8:30. The climb from the trailhead to the peak is roughly 2,000 feet. It’s a 2.5 mile climb to the top.
My brother, Michael isn’t the person you would guess would take a day off work to this, but he did and he brought his nephew and his friend. My sister and I were so excited to have him there with us…even though on the first leg of the hike he got us lost. All the reviews I had read stated, “it’s impossible to get lost”. These people do not share my DNA. We ended up mountain scaling as we were certain the trail was just a little ‘over grown’. I went with the flow until we reached a point we were so high up you could actually see the actual trail. We turned around and started our slide back down the mountain.
An old Shingletown friend, Bonnie made the drive from Sacramento. She was one of the first people to sign up to go. Many people said they would be able to make it, but as it got closer to the date I got a handful of ‘I can’t make it…’ with family plans and one that couldn’t make it because he couldn’t get his green card for the visit. We were all okay with it because it originally was just my sister and I going together and whoever else can make it was just a bonus. My brother brought his nephew and his nephew brought a friend (we called him billy goat because he made the hike to the top, turned around and found us half way and walked back up…all in army fatigues and an awkward survival gear satchel)
Kathy’s friend Darla came and she brought her niece, Lindsey. Kara and Alyx made the hike with me to the top and Alyx did a fine impression of the 14 year old version of me; complaining all the way to the top and all the way down. Kara pulled it out after a mile, she decided that she was going to do this and do it with grace. She took over carrying the heavy camelback from Alyx and was motivating others on the way up. I was so proud of her!!
My dad and Lester puttered around the park with Ben while we all made this hike.
I’m proud of my sister for having her new year’s resolutions and a bucket list. Because of her passion to do something she put a lot of things in motion that changed a few people’s lives. I started hiking to simply prepare to make this hike more graceful than when I was a kid. Because of this, I got Dan and Tabitha hiking too. Three people are stronger because of her resolution and my two daughters can say they climbed a ‘mountain’. This is just the beginning for me. We already have plans for our next big hike.
It was a beautiful day, a beautiful night and an all around perfect weekend.