{"id":1756,"date":"2016-04-28T17:51:21","date_gmt":"2016-04-28T17:51:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/?p=1756"},"modified":"2016-04-28T03:49:56","modified_gmt":"2016-04-28T03:49:56","slug":"re-post-the-only-way-off-this-mountain-is-over-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/?p=1756","title":{"rendered":"Re-Post: The Only Way Off This Mountain Is Over It"},"content":{"rendered":"

Note: While I’m working on creating some new posts, I’m re-posting some of my favorites, such as this one.<\/span><\/h4>\n

\"Mountain<\/p>\n

When my older son was about to turn ten, I began a three-year process of initiating him into manhood. \u00a0(How I came to this decision is the subject of an upcoming\u00a0post.) \u00a0The first part of this entailed a four-day backpacking trip along a segment of the Foothills Trail <\/a>in the mountains of South Carolina.<\/p>\n

Here I should explain that the Foothills Trail is 76 miles long and runs in its meandering course in South Carolina and North Carolina from Table Rock State Park at its eastern end to Oconee State Park at its\u00a0western end. \u00a0Starting at Table Rock State Park, the first segment of the trail goes up to the bald atop Pinnacle Mountain — roughly 1,800 feet of vertical climb<\/a> over the course of a mile or less.<\/p>\n

It had been at least ten years since I’d had a backpack on my back, and my son had never had a pack on his back. \u00a0Even so, we prepared — buying the gear, brushing up on bushcraft, studying the topographical maps and trail guides, and walking the neighborhood with weighted backpacks. \u00a0As we made ourselves ready, I emphasized\u00a0what an adventure we were going to have, not how difficult it was likely to be. \u00a0Despite my strict workout discipline, I underestimated the physical challenge.<\/p>\n

The day of the trip we reviewed our checklists twice, weighed our fully-loaded packs and my son kissed his mom goodbye.<\/p>\n

We arrived at the trailhead a couple of hours later, filed our plan at the rangers’ station and had hardly gone 400 yards before it began to rain. \u00a0In some ways this was a good thing, since the afternoon had already been oppressively \u00a0humid. \u00a0But the rain didn’t last, making the humidity even worse. \u00a0The rain also made the roots, rocks and ruts that comprised the trail’s surface slick, and the narrow switchbacks treacherous.<\/p>\n

Despite our preparations, the slope of that first mountain was considerably steeper than the suburban hills of our subdivision and the trail more forbidding than the paved cul-de-sacs we had walked. \u00a0Outwardly, I encouraged my son; inwardly I began to wonder what I had gotten us into. \u00a0With my legs burning, my clothes drenched in sweat, and my pulse pounding in my ears, I prayed my son wouldn’t have the horror of watching his father croak in front of him.<\/p>\n

I’d be lying if I said there wasn’t a bit of whining, and a few times my son said he wanted to go home. \u00a0Despite my apprehension and the greater-than-expected difficulty of the climb, I refused to consider turning back — and I told him so. \u00a0I explained that the entire purpose of the adventure was to enable him to discover his strength by putting it to the test in an uncertain enterprise. \u00a0“The only way off this mountain is over it, ” I said. \u00a0And that became an axiom I spoke to him — and later to his brother — from then on.<\/p>\n

I’m telling you this story because I suspect you’re on a mountain of your own right now. \u00a0Perhaps you’re tempted to quit and return to the comfort and safety of the familiar. \u00a0Before you do that, I want to \u00a0encourage you instead to view your current challenges as an opportunity to discover your strength through perseverance. \u00a0You may or may not succeed but you will learn, and by learning you will eventually succeed.<\/p>\n

So how about you?<\/strong> \u00a0What is your mountain? \u00a0How are you persevering to get over it? \u00a0Add your comments below.<\/span><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Note: While I’m working on creating some new posts, I’m re-posting some of my favorites, such as this one. When my older son was about to turn ten, I began a three-year process of initiating him into manhood. \u00a0(How I came to this decision is the subject of an upcoming\u00a0post.) \u00a0The first part of this […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[4,5,121,52,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1756","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-adventure","category-foothills-trail","category-initiation","category-masculinity","category-perseverance"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1756"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1759,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1756\/revisions\/1759"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.therealgeobooth.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}