I thought it  was going to be a two mile hike with little elevation change.  Little did I know it was going to be 5.5 miles and an elevation upwards to 3,000 feet. I was thinking it was just a normal backpacking trip, but two hours in I knew it wasn’t right. This experience taught me to persevere because you can’t finish something by quitting.

It was a weekend backpacking trip with family friends on Mt. Adams in Washington. We planned for a very easy hike, for I was only ten. My older brother and sister along with my dad, started off the two hour drive from our home in Portland, Oregon. Our friends were meeting us at the camp spot. We got to the trailhead at little late and we didn’t see our friends car, a little suspicious, but we just thought they must be slightly late too. We began our hike, and just a half mile in my dad suggested that we fill up our water bottles at the creek, so we did. Several hours later, that water was helping us a lot; we even ran out a couple miles before the hike ended. We could’ve experienced dehydration and had problems that we wouldn’t otherwise had. We began climbing extremely steep hills covered in slippery mud. We thought, “Wow I didn’t think it was going to be this steep.” I kept waiting for it flatten out which never seemed to happen. We came across two girls about 2.5 miles in they said they hiked about 4 miles and turned around. Now I’m not really sure what made us keep going, but luckily we did. My older brother and sister were managing and hiking forward, however I was struggling to keep going and was having to make rests with my dad. It was getting dark and my dad was thinking we should pitch our tents and hike down tommorow. Still, we get going up the steep slippery hills. After about 5.5 miles, we heard my friend’s distinct voice yell, “Hey it’s the Sheaffer!” All of the tensed up muscles released in that one single moment. It turned we did take the wrong trail and our friends took the simple easy-going trail that we meant to take.

In the end, I found out that I should keep pushing onwards in physical exhausting situations. I think my limit is much less than what I actually can accomplish and was evidently shown to me that day. I must remember from now on to persevere because you can’t finish something by quitting.