They call it “The Great Wall” … I call it stairs on steroids. Stairs of varying sizes, varying distance between steps, varying materials … original wall vs. restored plywood stairs.
I went in with the best of intentions, “I’m going to hike The Great Wall!” … as far as they will let us go, I will venture to see it all … HA! After blazing up the first staircase at the front of the pack, I realized the moral of the childhood story, “The Tortoise and the Hare” … though with great ambition I charged the Wall, I was soon gasping for breath, trying to adjust to the elevation, extreme pollution, and frigid temperatures … that weren’t so frigid after doing the natural stair master in layers and layers of clothing. Seriously, by the time I reached the third summit/watch tower, I couldn’t take off layers fast enough.
So as many of the troops charged forward to another set of stairs steeper than I have ever climbed before, I threw in the towel and decided to just soak in the beauty and the vastness of God’s creation. I was on The Great Wall … who am I? This was definitely not in the 5 or 10 year plan, but it was in God’s plan … a plan so much bigger than I ever dreamed. So after many many stairs, I just sat down and listened to worship music until the troops returned to head back to the bus. I like to jokingly say that climbing up the stairs is one of the most physically challenging things I have ever done, but climbing down the stairs … I was way more afraid for my life. One wrong step, and that would be a horrible test of gravity and human dominos. There was even snow and ice on parts of the stairs, just to throw in an extra challenge. Thank God for hand rails.
Here are some pictures from our adventure:
(There I am all bundled up after the first set or so of stairs)
(A view from above … not even at the third and final stop for me)
(The “flat” section and the handrails that saved my life)
(It just goes on and on, note how polluted the air is …)
(One of my favorite pictures that I took from our resting spot)
(There I am … sitting on The Great Wall)
(Elizabeth and I enjoying the view)
(This picture doesn’t even do justice to the steepness of those stairs)
