"Pre-trip Hiking/Pack Test" by Sabrina

Mr. March approaches us by email asking us if we'd like to do a hike Friday morning.  Of course we would all love to ready ourselves for the trip, so we all say yes.  To start off, I do not do much hiking. Although I do love the outdoors more than anything, it just doesn't occur much too often.  Little do we know though, this "hike" is a rock climb.  I believe I misinterpreted the hiking part of this little adventure.  My hikes happen next to some gorgeous waterfall, lakeside, or some other breath-taking view.  But oh no, hiking to Mr. March is what I would call a mountain climbing experience.  Mountain climbing sounds great and all, but there is absolutely no way I have ever thought of doing it or even have had the experience needed for it.  Yet there we were standing at the bottom of this, what I would call, mountain.  It seemed a little steep at first, but I didn't think much of it.  My optimism had me thinking that there would be a little incline and then flatten out with great views all around our long hike.  Once we finally arrived at the beginning of the rocks, my nervousness kicked in.  I was thinking to myself, "Where did the trail go?  Are we supposed to go around?"  Even the joyous question of "Are we done yet?" kept rattling in my head with every step up the rocks.  

Let me say this though, even if the hike was difficult, it was beautiful.  I will admit that is not how I felt walking awkwardly (March made us stuff our newly donated Osprey backpacks with clothes and 2-liters of water) up through all of the rocks, but I now have an understanding of the meaning of the hike.  We were all told that our first day or so of the Camino de Santiago would be hard because we were hiking in the mountains, but that hadn't sounded so bad. That was until March decided to share with me that we were currently hiking an 800 foot elevation gain and the camino would be starting with a 4,000 foot elevation gain.  I then began to worry quite a lot.  Don't get me wrong, I am extremely excited for this trip.  It may even be the greatest thing I do for quite some time, but I am a tad bit uncomfortable with the thought of just how steep that is going to be. Especially when I kept saying to myself while walking up that supposed tiny hill, "why would he make us do this and not warn us?" I would love to say though, I did make it.  I am no quitter.  I stood at the top of that hill, or mountain as I'd call it, and felt the joy of completing my first pre-hike hike. I may complain and feel like lying on the ground for the rest of my life, but my ambition has a tendency to kick in when I need it most. No matter how hard getting ready for this trip is going to be, as well as the trip itself, I cannot wait to be in Spain letting go of everything and freeing myself.

Sabrina