Delusional quitter

I don’t usually quit once I set my mind to something.

Me resting on an unknown trail from the late 80’s or early 90’s. I do think we went to the top that day.

As a kid, my dad who hated crowds stood in the hot sun with me to ride Space Mountain. After we finally got up to a cut out where you could see people on the roller coaster I chickened out – same thing at Sliding Rock. Both of those were because of fear.

Now I’ve had 2 trails that I didn’t make it to where I thought I wanted to go, because well – because I just couldn’t at least not in the time needed to get back to the car.

On the beach, I always walk farther than I think I have then by the time I get back to the hotel I’m tired. Hubby always tells me we should turn around yet I keep wanting to go just little farther, or to the next pier.  That’s not too bad because it’s flat and other than getting sunburned or blisters – it’s doable. 

The first trail was in 2007, over big rocks was in Hawaii at Pololu lookout. No water, no hiking shoes when I decided I wanted to go down to the beach. The picture was taken about where we turned and went back to the top. Hubby about had to pull me back up to the parking lot and we didn’t go that far down. Let’s blame it on elevation.  Hey, I still have that shirt and shoes. Heck, the shoes have been to Costa Rica in 1998 too.

PHOTO by Lynn Willis

Yesterday I wanted to be at a certain picnic shelter in Table Rock State Park at a set time. We took off and got there a few hours before that to hike around. I wanted to see Carrick Creek Falls and Mill Creek Falls. If I’d taken the time to read the website I would’ve seen Mill Creek Falls was still closed from last years fire.

The teenager at the desk said it was 3. something miles to the top of table rock and that it was “very strenuous”.

Well I walk/hike every few weeks but geez I couldn’t do it. After we took a break leaned up against a big rock, my intelligent husband said we could only go another 30 minutes if we wanted to be back at the shelter in time. I took off at a rejuvenated speed for me for about 10 whole minutes thinking I could reach the summit (hey it’s my story and the top of this trail should be called a summit as hard as it is) only to add nausea to my shaking legs and heart beats pounding in my head. This is about when hubby says that I’m overly optimistic about my abilities – heck even delusional… and he’s right.

I decided to quit. I set my phone on the way down to see how far we’d made it. I wagered we were 2/3 of the way to the top. Hubby thought maybe we’d gone 2 of the 3.6 miles. Hubby gave me his walking stick and we started back down.

We passed people that asked if we saw the bear. Nope, but playing dead might not have been much of a problem at that point. Running was out of the question for me anyway and like the saying goes you don’t have to out run the bear, you just have to out run the other person you’re with. Hubby knows about my flight or fight response being FLIGHT FLIGHT FLIGHT without even thinking but I was so tired when we passed a little 7″ long snake with 2 long yellow lines all the way down its back (garter snake?) I didn’t even get out my camera I’d lugged with me. I did take it out for the larger copper head right by the trail closer to the bottom.

Back where we started I checked my phone and was disappointed to see we’d only went 1.26 miles up that darn mountain. So another day,  after they reopen the Mill Creek trail, without a time limit, maybe when it’s not 80 degrees we’ll try again.

Back at the car, we pull out a wonderful picnic lunch that he thought of and packed to enjoy by the lake. I wouldn’t want to go through this life with anyone else. My soul mate knows me better than I know myself.