I am having a bit of an anxiety crisis. During my recent weekend at Big Bear, one of the other moms asked me if I wanted to join a group hiking Mount Whitney in August. I thought, hey pretty cool. The other women going are all pretty cool and I have always wanted to do more cool outdoorsy things so I said sure, why not. Anyway, it is not until August so i have plenty of time to prepare.
However, once I started reserching Mount Whitney and hiking it, I started to realize this is a huge monumental hike!!!!! Oh my gosh! I have since discovered that this is an 11-mile hike most of it at high altitudes. Altitude sickness is mentioned in most of the websites I visited and I even read about a number of deaths on Mount Whitney (now I need more details on this major fact). Basically, you can't just decide to hike Mount Whitney and do it, there is tons of preparation and gear involved. Camping out under the stars, eating dehydrated food, pooping in the woods and saving it to bring back to civilization...am I crazy?
I would say that when I was younger I think I would avoid many tasks that i did not think I would succeed at ahead of time. I think now that I probably passed on some exciting opportunities. So, as of today, I am still committed to the hike. However, I see a lot of work ahead getting my body in shape for this 3 to 4 day hike!
So far, I have been reading up on the internet about Mount Whitney and hiking/camping. I already spent some money at Amazon.com on a few books as well on Mount Whitney. I have to start locating my gear, but luckily do have some more experienced friends who have promised to help. I think the toughest part will be convincing myself to work out more to prep my body! I can not believe I signed on for this.
Interesting to know.
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