The biggest difference between school and hiking is whether failure is an option.
For 80% of the trail there was not a single other human being in sight. The risk spiked further when we realized there was no cell service for the entire route. All three of us had sprained our feet and ankles one way or another and yet we never broke pace.
Our bodies are predisposed to fight for life and never perish. Even when full night crept over the forest due to our miscalculations, my dad’s absentminded dance-practice-turned-nervous-babbling soon became mote when he realized that we were on the shortest path back to camp… There was no choice but to finish the 6.5 mile loop we had designated for ourselves. Kai had misled us, but the panic never settled in. It was because he was the adrenaline, and I the optimist.
With only two phone flashlights for three people, we crawled slowly, ten feet at a time, back tracking when we could not proceed. I was so impressed with my dad’s ability to cross the steep ravine and running water with only one hiking pole; to sit in the pure black with a scary degree of calmness while we scoped out the trail.
I took a second to stare back into the night.
It didn’t engulf me. I ended that evening feeling bigger than ever before.
Because how foolish it is to not know and still succeed.