My First Time Climbing a Mountain

Let me just preface this by saying that I was not expecting to climb to the top of a mountain when I started making my way over to the trail. I thought that I was going to just hike around it and then come back once it got scary. 

When I traveled to Phoenix, AZ back in January, I immediately looked up places to hike around the city. I settled on Camelback Mountain because it was possible to get to by public transit (I didn't have a car). There were two trails that went up either side of the mountain and many people on Yelp said the Cholla Trail was easier. I really would not like to find out what the other trail was like (actually someone died on it pretty recently).

I started hiking up the trail, which traveled upward but was pretty wide. I remember thinking, "I could totally do this, this isn't bad at all!" Well, then the trail started getting narrow and I was hiking next to some pretty steep cliffs. 

I remember telling myself that I could always turn around and go back. There was a halfway point where you could see the trail end and turn into a climb to the top. But once I got to that point, I saw a group of people who had to have been 20 years older than me begin climbing. That was enough encouragement for me to keep going, even though it seemed pretty frightening to me. At least, if something happened, there was a whole group of people who would've seen it and called for help (morbid positivity right there). 

Once I got to the top, I felt such a huge sense of accomplishment. Honestly, I am so proud of myself for sticking with it. I told myself that this year I would take myself outside of my comfort zone and this was the perfect way to start that off. 

While I don't want to encourage people to do reckless, dangerous things, I do want to encourage you to get out of your comfort zone as often as you can. It may seem scary at first, but I guarantee you will feel awesome once you've done it. It can be something small, like trying a new restaurant or meeting new people. Or it can be something huge like climbing a mountain. Hey, it's your life, you decide!