A basic truth about me is that I am a heights chicken! I am very uncomfortable with steep drops in elevation- However, I REALLY really want to go on a helicopter ride and/or a hot air balloon ride. Doesn't seem logical, but we all know that logic has no hold over me!! So when we got to our first beautiful campsite, the fatal flaw for me was it's proximity to a frighteningly high cliff! Now it wasn't a total drop off, there was apparently a bit of a graduated decline for the first maybe 10 feet- but then from my vantage point it was a 30 ft plunge to the river below.
I could not even look at people standing near what my eyes perceived to be the edge of the gorge. It really makes me sort of sick to see that. Especially children near the edge. ugh. Anyway, I am sure my canoe partners thought I was a lunatic, but I could not participate in activities near the edge, no matter how they tried to sweet talk me!!
Bear in mind that before I went on this trip, my biggest fears (for the adventure) were not sleeping and losing/wrecking my camera. This got my attention in a whole new way! I am really glad I had no idea what I was getting myself into.
Seriously, look at that!! Penny absconded with my camera and took these pictures. Can you see how steep this is?? Sheesh. So, what do you think that these people did to me??? They talked me into hiking down the side of this! WHY??? Apparently I must radiate weakness.
Come on Debi, I will hold your hand all the way down to the bottom, Penny wheedles with her sweet voice! With my niece looking on and me wanting to not appear to be a total coward, I agreed. You have no idea how much of a leap of faith this was. But it was a trip for me to test my physical and mental strength, so I bit the proverbial bullet and went for it. This does not mean I did not whine all the way down, swearing under my breath and quite possibly out loud. Who knows what I said. Meanwhile, the little voice inside of me was telling me how I was doing something I never would have done before and how cool this sort of was. Sort of. In spite of my shrieking. Someone recently told me I should do some rock climbing-and while I laughed at that comment- little did I know that I would be doing that exact thing at least 3 times during this trip!
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| Gorgeousness in the gorge |
I was so grateful that I went down there, as the scenery was amazing. Penny was so right, I had no (few!) regrets after returning to the camp. I was able to get back up there way faster than the descent. I will say, though, I was no more able to go near the edge of that precipice the rest of our short stay there. So while I did something "brave" it did not help AT ALL!!!
So, this was traumatizing enough, but do you think I was done with that??? Oh no, 2 days later I found myself climbing around on some nearby rocks on an alleged "path" to a lovely little rocky outlook. The rocks up there are pretty amazing. They are everywhere, they are flatish, they are slippery, they have things growing out of every little crevice. Really lovely, but not the easiest to maneuver!
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| Camp from the other side of the cove |
I also ended up carrying a canoe across some places that were a bit difficult, too. But I just kept going. I was not about to stop!
AND THEN, they had me doing this!!! I told them they would all be going to hell for this! I may look happy, but I was praying for the camera to click and be done.... and then that woman would say, we need another one! PENNY!!!!!!!
And if this wasn't enough, my sister was out climbing around on the rocks where she didn't belong!!
Canoes up on the rocks!
The rocks were just everywhere- it was pretty. And they offered a lot of places to stand!
I can not believe I did some of these things. They may seem like minor things to overcome, but the heights thing, with the added issue of falling, was major. It surely is something (along with a minor claustrophobia problem) that can alter the course of my activities. So yay, I did it!!! Fears faced even if not conquered.
And that was a joy!
Applause!
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