Three plus months later what I want to remember is that I survived this hike…

It started with a group of co-op seniors making a plan to do a hike at a park in the upstate.  I was asked to be a chaperone by the sweet student coordinating the hike.  This seemed wholly reasonable, as I love doing the things my kids do, and I have a van large enough to move groups easily.

Early that morning, Tab headed out in her own vehicle to pick up her friend Daniel who was going to join the seniors (he graduated from the co-op last year).  I went to multiple stops to pick up other students.  We waited for the kids coming from the west side, and we started our hike around 8AM.

I had zero idea what I had agreed to.  None whatsoever.  I had no idea it would be like 5 miles up and 5 miles back down.  It took 5+ hours and I don’t know HOW I finished it.

 

 

At this point I rested and checked in on Instagram only to see most of the kids were already at the top.  Like an hour later I finally got there!

Tab made it up in the group before me. 

 

One of the students was kind enough to hang back with me as we made our way down.  As I grabbed on to every rock along the way down, he nimbly looked at his phone the whole time he descended the mountain.

Live and learn.

It was no joke.

BUT I DID IT!  At 51 years old!