So, for my entire life, I have always loved hiking and being in the outdoors. I live on the Eastern Seaboard of the US, so this was great because there are so many hikes around the Appalachian Trail an the like, all with some great views. Even outside of the Eastern Seaboard, I have done a lot of hiking, and I do consider myself an experienced hiker. I have done Old Rag, which is one of the hardest hikes on the AT, I have been hiking in the Rockies, Grand Canyon, Yellowstone, Olympic and in Acadia, and these where all non-trvial hikes. Easily 10+ miles round trip, and with a decent incline too. Now, I always hiked with my dad, as it was just a family/bonding thing. Nobody else in my family has the endurance or stamina to do distance and incline, closest is my sister who has the endurance from sport running, but the incline kills her.
Now most of that hiking happened in my teenage years. Since coming to college a lot has changed. My dad developed chronic gout, his age is starting to catch up to him, and injuries from his past are also catching up to him. For me, my summers are taken up by research/internships, and the normal semester I am either in class or sitting in front of my PC designing circuits and doing math. Needless to say, I have not been hiking seriously in a long while, only really short, really casual stuff that, but I have still told my friends that I love hiking, and I am pretty serious about it.
So a couple of weeks ago, my friends invite me to go up a hike. Its 5.7 miles round trip, with steep, rocky unmarked blazes, and a great view at the top. These friends know that I am was an avid hiker, so they invited me along (though I suspect that having a 6’5”, 250 pound titan is good for two women to have on a hike in the middle of bumfuck nowhere lol; but I digress). Anyway, I thought it would be light work, since through my hiking career, I had adjusted to make life easy on me. In the beginning, I used to speed run my way through things, and burn yourself out very fast, but eventually I started taking things slower, more calmer which conserved my energy. I thought things would be light and easy…
BOY was I wrong. Instantly, the trail starts at a 30ish degree incline, and while I am taking things slow and at a nice pace, my two friends are running circles around me. To the point where one of them is running a distance ahead of me, and then running back. So while I am slowly making my way through, these two are setting a decently fast pace that I am trying my best to keep up with. It is also important to note that I am holding all the water, because I offered to as I was the only guy in the group, and its is full sun with no cover, so I am burning energy like no tomorrow. Now, through this, I am really lagging behind, to the point where I am falling so far behind they are having to stop and wait for me, and I am also having to take stops every so often to catch my breathe and rest, because occasionally I am getting dizzy. In total I am embarrassing myself, compared to all the bragging my friends have heard.
Then comes the rougher part of the hike. The blazes are barely marked, the trail is turning into rock climbing, and I am holding all the weight of the group, including the water, lunch for everyone, and some medical supplies just in case. And if you slip or miss a handhold, you are going tumbling down the mountain. All of this is not to mention that its still sunny, and I am exhausted even more, but I keep on powering through, even as I fall more and more behind. It gets to the point where they make it to the top about 30 mins before me. Once we got to the top, we eat lunch, rest for a little bit, take some pictures and then start our way back
Coming down there was also some more fun. At one point I skidded on a part of the trail, and I hurt my ankle a bit, not enough to incapacitate me, but enough to slow me down even more, and my knees are also chronically bad, so they are just pounding while I am walking. As well, one of my friends did not pack enough water, and ended up burning through her supplier, AND my extra water (I packed extra for everyone in case they did not or they needed more) AND after that I offered her my water, because she very clearly needed it. Of course, that left me with minimal water myself. Again, in total, I am embarrassing myself in front of my two friends, because now I am moving even slower and very clearly am struggling.
Eventually we get back to the care, and I legit passed out in the car, and then after they dropped me home, passed out in bed. I was exhausted, dehydrated and had a tinge of heatstroke as well. I was out of it for like 2 days afterwards, while they recovered instantly after a night’s rest. Needless to say, I got quickly humbled by this hike, and I think I am gonna have to ease myself back into hiking, once I graduate from college.
TL;DR: Completely embarrassed myself on a hike in front of my two friends, after bragging that