Sunday, September 28, 2008

annual goal...accomplished!

a few years ago i was talking to my dad about going fishing for a day...and after i told him the details of my plans, he said, "with you, it's really just about the story you can tell afterwards." i wasn't sure what to say...because, truly, i was about to spend eight hours of my day in a car so i could fish for a few hours on opening day. kinda a ridiculous way to spend a day so i would have a cool story afterwards. and i did it...and i told everyone about how cool it was.

this past weekend i hiked Half Dome. i've been wanting to do it for the past three years, but after working my butt off to get to the top and back, i realized the main reason i did it was so that i could tell the story of how i hiked Half Dome. it is about 7 miles of a pretty treacherous hike up a mountain, followed by about one mile of climbing up a steeper rock, ending with 160 yards of life-threatening cable climbing. and then you gotta turn back and go back down. the view at the top is completely awe-inspiring...and overcoming that challenge is absolutely awesome...but you can also drive a car to Glacier Point and see a lot of beautiful mountains.

i don't want to downplay this accomplishment - i am really excited that i finally hiked Half Dome. it is really cool that i get to tell the story (there are many details i'm leaving out). but in the future, i may question my motives before taking on fairly major challenges.

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