crawling on my hands and knees

I feel like I'm about to walk into a dangerous jungle. The next, oh, ten days or so are ridiculously packed with important, attention-worthy travels, experiences, and friends. I am just a tiny bit intimidated.

When we were in Seattle last month, we took a long hike into the mountains one day. It was gorgeous, and challenging. The trail took us through deep green woods and moss-carpeted boulders, over log-bridges, through massive grey piles of sharp-edged rocks, and into glacial territory. We hiked to a glacier lake that was a thick emerald color, fed by the active glacier just across the water from where we stood. It was truly a spectacular view.

But, the hike was intimidating. It took us all day. I mean, we started out briskly enough, sort of cocky, actually.
"What? This isn't that hard!"
Later, when we were crawling up switch-backs and sucking in the dramatically thin air, it was a different story. My feet hurt, I was sucking in air like an 80 year old chain smoker who's just jogged around the block. Somehow, though, (ok, with lots of encouragement!) I made it to the top.

So, while this may not totally (if I'm being honest) inspire a "bring it on, world!" defiance, it at least tells me this: if I don't give up, I will eventually gain the peak. Crawling on my hands and knees, but making it.