I Didn’t Want To See This

I’m Baaaaack

Back from some much needed R&R with my wife out in Scottsdale, Arizona.

If you have never been out to the Phoenix area I highly recommend it, especially if you like being outdoors.

I don’t want to depress anyone with the details of how awesome our trip was considering the dreariness that we are currently embedded in since we got back.

But I will tell you about our climb of Camelback Mountain.

There are two trails leading up Camelback.  One considered to be challenging and for experienced climbers only and the other as I read on the website, “A good workout.”

Since there are no mountains in STL we chose option 2, “A good workout,” figured we have done plenty of good workouts this should be no problem.

Famous last words

We park and begin to walk to the trail head, about 1/2 mile, as we are walking we are passed by 5 emergency vehicles that turn down the street that leads to the trail head.

I didn’t want to see this on technically my first mountain climbing experience.

We get to the trail head and sure enough that’s where the EMS was set up.  We stop and read the sign next to the trail head and realize that this trail is rated a double diamond, extremely difficult.  I didn’t say anything but I was thinking that we may not be prepared for this.

The trek starts very mundane for the first 25 mins no problems just like climbing stairs.  Then we see the EMS bringing someone down on a stretcher, young teenage girl, who was more embarrassed then hurt because she got dehydrated.

We stop take some pics of the view have some water and move on.

Then repeat, repeat, repeat.

We get to a trail marker 18 that informs us we are just past half way.  Oh it’s been an hour plus it is now after 1pm  90 something degrees and we are out of water.  This is becoming more than just a good workout as advertised by the website.  I started to think the good workout was what I had this morning at the hotel gym, this is just down right starting to suck.

But we venture on to trail marker 26 which had us about 200 ft from the summit.  There weren’t many people out on the trail at this point and we couldn’t tell which way to go.  Being fatigued and not wanting to call EMS back since they already had to pull one person off we called it a day and started back down.

Looking back on our climb it was a great lesson for training, working towards your goals, or just life in general.

You need to be prepared for anything.

Gather all pertinent information

If you aren’t prepared things will be more painful and difficult

There is always work to be done in order to move forward.

Some times are definitely more difficult and scary and will have you questioning why you started this journey in the first place

But you can find times to take it easy all the while still moving forward making progress.

And the most important and simplest…

One step at a time

I would have you consider these lessons to some area of your life that you are trying to improve on or maybe to a goal that you attempted in the past.

Even if you are amidst your climb right now apply 1 are a few of these lessons to help you get to your next level.

Because there is one thing I know for sure what got me as far as I did won’t work next time to get me further.

I will have to be better on the way up!

coach “I know why they are called mountain climbers”  Doug