The very nature of existence is bipolar.  Good times are followed by bad times, sometimes at the speed of sound.  It is our burden and gift as humans to figure out how to manage this reality.  I’m not sure I’ve figured it out entirely just yet, but I do have one word of advice:  When things aren’t going your way, climb.

Things have not been going my way this week.

That lovely girl who made an appearance in a previous blog entry left town to travel Europe.  Her travels will be spent with another man.  I never got a chance to say goodbye, and I will not be seeing her again until after my summer trip.

I recently came down with a cold or a flu…or something.  Not sure how to describe it, but my muscles feel weak, my neck is sore, and whenever I stand I get dizzy.  This is the first time I haven’t been at the pinnacle of health in months, possibly even years.  I’m hoping to shake it off soon.

The Tiguan (aka sexy beast) randomly decided to die on me.  It was a pain in the butt getting the engine started again, as I was kind of far from home and people who could help, and between replacing the battery and other needed replacements on the vehicle, a hefty unanticipated bill took a bite out of my budget.

Maybe it’s because I’ve been working while sick, but work lately simply isn’t fulfilling to me.  I just can’t get into it for some reason, and I’ve been trying to get away from the office as much as possible.

And possibly the worst news of all…my sisters somehow convinced me to end my approximate year long boycott of the theaters to see Jurassic World with them.  Perhaps it was the nostalgia I felt seeing Jurassic Park in the theater with my dad in Salt Lake City as a young boy, or perhaps it was the kaleidoscope of emotions I felt on realizing that Jadda had already left the area, but something had left me weak and I agreed to wait in a ridiculously long line with people who looked like they hadn’t seen sun or a treadmill in years, only to see a movie so inexplicable that it had a velociraptor exploding like a car in an action movie.  What happened to movies?  Oi vey.

So, amidst all of this negativity that stripped away the “it was the best of times” mantra I had been writing about a few weeks ago, I agreed to “suck it up” and hike the Lassen summit peak with my family.  And while I realize I just wrote about a trip to Lassen one month ago, why not write another piece on it?  After all, it’s a beautiful park, and the summit peak represents its tour de force.  A trip there with my family who loves and supports me through everything is simply icing on the cake.

The first thing we noticed upon reaching the trailhead parking lot was the temperature: It was cool and windy!  Lately, the valley has been scorching hot, with temperatures in the high 100’s/low 110’s.  To feel 60 degrees with a strong breeze was a treat all in itself.  Nature’s air conditioning.

I like to think that the way my family tackles a mountain is a good metaphor for how we tackle anything in life.  We tend to hike much faster than most people on the trail, but at the same time, we don’t really stick together like most people do while hiking.  Instead, we each go at our own pace with the understanding that we’ll meet up at the top at the end of our journey.  In other words, we each do our own thing and set our own goals, but we always come together in the end to enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Unfortunately, the summit peak hike doesn’t lend itself to the type of stories that I was able to tell in some of my previous blog entries.  It’s a steep hike, a long hike, a challenge, but there’s not much else happening on the trail itself.  However, the views looking out from the trail are unrivaled in the park.

Lilly snapping a shot of the view around one mile into the hike.

This mountain was the backdrop in my Paradise Meadows hike.

My dad tackling a snow drift around two miles into the hike.

However, there was one adorable chipmunk that I bumped into about halfway up the mountain.

His name’s Hector.

Finally, (fever and dizziness be damned), I made it to the top of the mountain, and when my sister Lilly joined me, she did a ridiculous dance.

Once my family all made it up the mountain, we ate lunch together (complete with wine) and took a quick family photo.  Then, my dad and I continued onward, to the very top of Lassen – the highest point on the entire mountain.  Getting there required a bit of a scramble and rock climb, and with the winds gusting at high speed, it actually was a bit dangerous. But there’s no feeling quite like standing on the highest point of a huge peak…or in this case, a huge volcano.  And across the Lassen maw, we could see an even larger volcano; a place I would like to summit in the near future:  Mount Shasta.

The wind did awesome things to my hair.

My dad doing his Christ the Redeemer impression from the highest point on Lassen.

Mt. Shasta as seen from the very highest point of Lassen.

Crossing back from the highest point to the trail.  My dad’s in the distance.

And so climbing the peak also helped me climb out of the funk in which I had found myself.  Yet, as with everything in life, at some point we had to head down.

My mom heading down the peak.

Sam heading down the peak.

And as we dropped in elevation and returned to the valley, my headache and illness came back with a vengeance, likely as a result of the altitude change.  At the end of the day, I guess not much has changed in terms of circumstance.  I’m still sick; I’m still alone; and there’s still a good month to go before my journey.  But taking the time to enjoy a hike with my family helped change my outlook on recent events, and I’m reminded: When things aren’t going your way, climb.

Cheers,

Rob