Death Hike

OK, this post's title may be a little over the top but "Almost, Kinda, Sorta, Hike That Nearly Ended Our Lives, But Not Really" was just too long to fit on one line. It was about 2:00 in the afternoon on Memorial Day. We finished up the birthday party thank you's ( I can't wait for you to see them), ate a pancake breakfast, and were just hanging out. The day was gorgeous but a bit on the super hot side! Super Hubby suggested we take a hike in the South Chagrin Reservation on a trail we've never been on before, and we've been on most of them. We love to take hikes so we piled into the car and headed out.

Now I know why we've never been on this particular trail. I don't think ANYBODY has ever been on this particular trail. We hiked on this obscure path, admittedly the views were incredible. We were way above the waterfall and river and the path began to narrow. There was evidence of much erosion that had taken place and the path seemed to disappear, at times. Ahh, adventure - I welcome it to a point. We came along a massive mud pile along the "path" and found it necessary to make an upward climb to get around it. As we climbed this steep hill, off the path, I'm holding on to every tree limb to pull me up! I pulled a muscle in my left arm as I held on for dear life. My son, such a trooper, got around the mud pile fine, but when he tried to get back on the path that wasn't really a path, he lost footing and started sliding all the way down the muddy hill. He finally stopped, entire back side black. It's at this point I stopped talking to Super Hubby.

We continued on to find the "path" just ends into a ravine. My son and I started to panic, my husband started to complain why we would have worn sandals on a hike, and after all that, we knew we had to go back the way we came and worse, climb up the hill, too! The only thing worse would have been hearing a banjo play in the distance.

We made our way up the hill, then back down to a ravine with a small stream to wash off our son's back side as best we could. We started to circle around on a path we were familiar with, as I'm still silent about the whole thing. Our son takes my hand and says, "For better or for worse, mom." Ugh, this kid is too wise! He's the one that has a muddy back side, he's the one that, in his own words, had his life span "dwindle to single digits" as he was falling down the hill. Leave it to him to see the adventure and excitement, and love in it all. Our son admits, the hike started good, then went to bad, then really bad, then back to good, but it was exciting when it was really bad, so that made it good.


And this is the point of this post (thank you Super Hubby). Everyday, we live our lives in this safe little bubble we've created for ourselves. For many, venturing beyond those boundaries is a little scary because the unknown is scary. But, if you push the bubble, what awaits you could be the jump start your heart needs to know it's still alive. Getting the heart to beat faster is exhilarating and expanding our life's experiences helps to remind us we are alive and living, and sometimes, we need to pop the bubble to truly know it.


Thanks, Super Hubby, for pushing us down the road less traveled. I'm OK with it as long as we come out alive.


Note: I did not have my camera with me on this last hike. These pictures are from the same area, but during a less harrowing experience.