How could they forget the camera?! What if this was Kate's only opportunity for mountain pictures?
40. The First Hike (July, 2013)
It took
some serious effort, but Kate managed to tie her own shoes. Mister had been
decisive. They were going hiking. They were going somewhere new. And they were
going today. This was what Kate had wanted—one of her main goals for their stay
in Alaska !
Why then, was she feeling so nervous about it? Perhaps it was the fact that
standing up from a sitting position often caused severe pain. Perhaps it was
the awkwardness of general movement—displayed all too obviously by her difficulty
getting her hiking shoes on. Perhaps it was the suspicion that she would
desperately have to use the bathroom five minutes after they passed the last
outhouse. (As it turned out, she did—which made tying her shoes look as easy as
spitting.) But she shoved her fears aside and strode (waddled?) out to the car.
After all, this is what she had
wanted!
The drive
out to the trailhead was uneventful, and it turned out that they had many
options for trails. It was a whole connected system of trails between several
different mountains. Some skirted the sides, some plunged into the valleys and
followed the river, and others climbed to the peaks. Too bad it was difficult
to tell which were which… They decided to just start up and see what the trails
looked like as they came to them.
“We should
get out the camera!” Kate said, eager to document this new hike.
“I don’t
think we have it.” Mister replied.
Kate stopped
and stared at him. “How can we not have the camera?” Her voice went up almost
to a whine. “I looked around for it and didn’t see it. I thought you must have
grabbed it.”
Mister
shook his head, only slightly moved by his wife’s violent reaction. Kate turned
and walked next to him in silence toward the trailhead.
“I can’t believe we didn’t bring the camera!” she muttered with slight
variation every few minutes as they started up the trail.
She looked straight ahead of her,
biting back tears that she couldn’t explain. But she was undeniably in ‘the
depths of despair’, as Anne of Green Gables would put it. When she really
pressed herself, she didn’t just want
to go hiking. She wanted to get out on top. She wanted to document it. She
wanted to have pictures on top of a mountain looking her full seven months
pregnant. Pride, she sighed deeply as
she stalked along. I might have known it
would be something horrible and ridiculous. She pressed her lips together
to hold back more tears, but of a different sort.
Mister
looked at her cautiously. “Does that ruin the entire hike?”
Kate smiled
and took his hand. “No. Of course not. It’s just a disappointed expectation.
I’m still glad to be here, and I will
still enjoy it. I’m sorry for making such a fuss.”
As it turned out, the hike was not
worth bringing a camera. Kate and Mister never made it to the top. The views,
while lovely, were not spectacular. It was just a nice climb up and down in the
mountains, with lots of conversation beginning, “next time, we’ll…” It was a
good first hike though, not being particularly steep or muddy, and it was a
good amount of exercise, and (most
importantly of all) it proved to Kate that she really could get out and go
hiking. Until this point, in spite of all her desire to hike, she hadn’t been
convinced of her ability. This, she realized, was another reason why she had
been so distraught at leaving the camera behind.
She was
slow, yes. And often out of breath. And sometimes needed extra help going down
when it was difficult to see the steepness of the rocks around her large belly.
But the capability and stamina was definitely there. She expressed her relief
to Mister back at the car.
“I really
thought this might be the only hike I got to do; that we’d get back and I’d be
totally incapacitated, and wouldn’t be able to climb anything. But I actually
feel pretty good!”
Mister just
smiled. “No, you did great. How about going to Hatcher Pass
Kate
gulped, but nodded, “And let’s be sure to get the camera, shall we?”
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