So a couple weeks ago, my sister, best-friends and I decided to go on a random adventure to climb the tallest peak in New York. After a day of texting, and researching, we decided we were ready to embark. The tallest peak in New York is Mt. Marcy which is located in Lake Placid, which is a good four hours away from my house. So Friday night, we went to watch my cousin, Caleb, graduate from high school, then headed back to Pete’s house to sleep. We got up at 4 so we could leave, get up there, hike it and back down before dark. It was a seven mile hike each direction, and it ended up taking us a good 10 hours of hiking altogether.
So we got there a little late, and got started on our hike around 10 AM. We got there, and it was rainy, and semi-cold. Not prime weather for a day of hiking, but we were excited to get going and conquer New York. It started off nice and smooth but quickly turned in to muddy, rocky hiking.
It was a beautiful climb. It had many waterfalls and a beautiful river we crossed a few times. One of the things I forgot about New York was how beautifully green everything is. But anyway, here we are at our first rest at a river crossing. We met some other hikers who took our picture. They didnt speak much English, so we didnt get to converse, but they took our picture and then we kept going.
Part way up, we found a little buddy newt, and we quickly decided to name him Newb the newt. We also decided that Newb wanted to go to the peak with us, so we gathered him up and kept on our way.
Here, we started getting up in the clouds, and you cant quite see him, but Newb is still going strong. So after that, we headed through some pretty muddy spots, some steep climbs and rough terrain. A couple miles later, we ran in to a group of people on their way down, and we stopped and talked to them. We asked them how much farther we had, and they said maybe a couple miles. And we were like, oh thats not bad, but then they rephrased it and said, “Yeah, about 3 hours.” 3 hours for 2 miles?!?! Wow. So we decided we better get going so we could beat the sun on the way back down. The farther up we got, the wind, rain, and visibility got progressively worse. We were all pretty concerned about not being able to see a good view from the top.
This is us celebrating in heavy wind and rain because we were at the top…or so we thought. We turned around, and through the fog, we saw a peak behind us. We quickly realized we had more hiking to do. So, we kept going, and about another half hour, or 800 feet, we found the peak.
Here we all are, at the peak. Even Newb made it! That guy was a trooper! We were happy, but a little less excited this time because of the extra hiking we had to do, and the wind and rain was crazy! You cant tell here, but on top of the rock behind us, the wind was so strong, it almost picked me up! We were also bummed because the visibility was about 100 yards, so we didnt get to see much of anything.
It wasn’t but maybe two days after the hike, we were all sitting in our own homes, comfy and enjoying family, when I got a text from Aaron saying, ” Who wants to climb Mt. Washington?” Well, on our way home, we started talking about some of the higher peaks, and Pete said Mt. Washington was the tallest in the northeast, only behind one other mountain. When Pete said this, he didn’t know he had awakened a monster in Aaron, and as soon as he got home, he began researching what was to be our next adventure.
Within 5 minutes of the text being sent, we had all responded that we were in. The next day, we all met at my house and began reading articles on the trails and on the mountain. “The most dangerous small mountain in the world”, ” Top ten most dangerous weather mountains in the world”, and “The highest recorded wind ever recorded” kept popping up in the articles we read. I guess it was the guy in us, but we got more excited about our next adventure. We picked out our trail and our days, and we were ready to go!
So, this last Monday, we packed up our hippie wagon, and began our trip to Mt. Washington. We drove up to the base of the mountain, some 8 hours away, and then set up our sleeping arrangements:
Although it wasnt long term, we definitely, for a couple days, lived in a van, down by the river! I now know why Chris Farley made a big deal of it!
But anyway, we set up camp, and tried to get a good night’s rest for another long hike in the morning. Aside from a few mosquitos to get in the van, and a few loud guys who pulled in at 5 in the morning, we got good sleep and began our day. The Lord blessed us with a beautiful day this time, which we were grateful for, and we immediately said that we would get to see a view this time.
We began our hike, and on top of being one of the most dangerous mountains to climb, we decided to take the hardest trail Mt. Washington had to throw at us. What’s one more hard thing thrown in there?
The answer: more than we had anticipated! It was insane! It wasn’t quite straight up, but it was close and we coulda died! Legit rock climbing, with no ropes! I told the guys, if I had known beforehand what exactly what this trail was, I probably wouldn’t have done it. I am adventurous, and want to sky dive and what not, but I dont do well with heights, and this is somehow way different than sky diving!
But we continued to climb…and climb…and climb.
After a while, we reached a peak, and saw somewhat level ground again. This is us just after we had stopped climbing. Behind us is the way towards the peak, and we were excited about getting close to the top.
Four and a half hours after we began our hike up the Northeast’s tallest mountain, we finally found the peak. It was much colder, but we immediately were thankful for the view. It was literally what we talked about the most when we got up there.
Well at one point, in all the discussion of views and what not, in an attempt to be funny, I sang a part of Miley Cyrus’ song and told Pete, “It’s not whats on the other side, Pete, its the climb!” We all got a snicker out of it, but in an attempt to ease the moment with humor, God began a thought in my mind.
Everyone always talks about how wonderful heaven is, and how “the view” will be from heaven, and its not that I don’t agree with that, because I completely do, but we often times forget about the times before heaven. We forget about the mud, the straight up climbs with no ropes, the high winds and everything else going on. And while they may not be fun at the moment, and the top may have a better view in store, maybe God wants us to focus on everything on the way to the top?
After I had thought about it for a while, I am convinced that when we go through tough spots in our life, its mean to enhance our vision of the top when we get there. I really believe its the principal of when you work hard for something and save up and pay your own money for it, it means more. The harder things we go through, the more I think we will value heaven when we actually get there. And that’s not to say some people wont enjoy heaven, because obviously thats not true. I think its just an encouragement to anyone who is going through anything rough. God is there, and while its tough, just think of how much heaven will be seen as more full because of those moments?? I think we dont realize the value of the hard rain, the wind, and the straight up climb. I think the great philosopher, Miley Cyrus was on to something…just maybe.
