Highlander Adventure: Day 5

This has been the single most physically challenging day of my life. After our run and breakfast, we packed up camp and hiked. And hiked. And hiked. Uphill, downhill, past houses, past rivers, past trees. Through streams, mud, clearings, forests, thorns, and a town, hiking for hours and hours for the entire day. Early on, Morgan felt sick, so we all had to take turns carrying her pack in addition to our own. It was hard. At the end of the day, my shoulders had huge knots in them. We had left right after breakfast, ate lunch on the trail, and stopped hiking in the evening to set up camp and have dinner. We hiked about 11 miles that day.

Now I will say this-I didn't decide to go on Highlander to have fun, even though I've been having lots of it. I did it because I wanted a challenge in my nice, easy, comfortable, American life. So today was as fufilling as it was painful. Ususally, if something is causing me pain or discomfort, I've been able to stop whatever I'm doing and relax or do something different. Not so today. I was tired and hurting, and had no choice but to continue walking. To get through it, I daydreamed about Lord of the Rings and thought about my friends and family. I joked and chatted with the others. I stayed hydrated and enjoyed the scenery.

2/3 of the way there, we took a break in a town called Wanakena. Zac and Bethany treated us to ice cream! Refreshed, I caught my second wind and continued on the path in better spirits, smiling and humming to myself as I went. Eventually we made it to a campsite on the lake. After a great spaghetti dinner, Bethany had another surprise for us: she had brought The Silver Chair, the penultimate book in The Chronicles of Narnia. She read the first chapter out loud to us, complete with British accents for the voices. After that, we went to bed, but not before we admired the stars above the lake and mountains. It rivalled Camp Findley on it's best night. I slept well that night.


This was the first half of the Highlander trip. I'm going to take a break from that for a little bit. The next few posts will be about my first days at Houghton: my friends, my classes, my dorm, and my general feelings about the place. I'll finish the rest of Highlander later. Peace.