LOCALadk Magazine

Fall 2020 LOCALadk Magazine 15 LOCALadk Help ' atten the curve' Help ' atten the curve' Get out & ski this winter! Get out & ski this winter! Thanksgiving Sale: Nov. 27–Dec. 6, 2020 New, online sales at: www.cascadeski.com In the first weeks I mostly slept, read and kept myself busy as my flare subsided. On April 20, seven short weeks after my treatment, I decided to climb Owls Head, in Keene. I was just beginning remission and struggled terribly with balance and breathing. My legs were unsta- ble, but after great difficulty and several short breaks, I made it to the summit. Something strange happened at the top. I felt as though the entire world had stopped, and a feeling I can only describe as peace came over me. I sat there, just taking in the beauty of this remark- able place. This feeling of peace and exhaustion consumed me and I knew I wanted more of it. I began hiking whenever I could. I discovered the Chester Challenge, and completed it within a week. When I went to pick up my finisher badge, I spoke with the woman who gave me my little patch. I was so proud and excited, that I told her about all I had been through and she began to cr y. She went into a back room and returned with a coffee mug, saying, "Your challenge was a little harder." I hadn't really thought about my struggles that way. I knew it was a challenge, but just figured ever yone found it hard. I was grateful to be given that mug and still love it. In the next few months I completed the Fulton Trifecta and the Tupper Lake Triad. I am 12/29 on the junior 29'er, and 6/18 on the Firetower Challenge. I became obsessed. I asked anyone who ever owned hiking boots or climbed a mountain for advice. I discovered that people who climb mountains are incredibly supportive of people who want to climb them, and that they're an endless source of valuable information. I joined ever y group I could find and listened to ever ything they had to offer. People seemed concerned when I told them I solo hiked. My mother, who, although proud of me, was not wildly happy to have her daugh- ter with spinal trauma and neurological disease running around on top of mountains alone just for fun. She'd ask me regularly, " Why don't you find someone to go with you? Maybe you can join a group? " I didn't entirely disagree with her. I've often wished I had someone to hike with, just be- cause sometimes it gets lonely, particularly on the harder days, when all I had was me to encourage myself. I told her that I had joined a group —in fact, several groups—but there really was no group for people like me. The hikers in these groups are well-conditioned and able-bodied. There just aren't many disabled mountain hikers. As if to teach me a lesson, fate crossed my path when I encountered multiple injured and disabled hikers in the next few days. These hikers are out there, and they are climbing moun- tains! It excited me to know that there are people just like me who have struggles and are enduring and actually thriving. They're setting goals and reaching them. I created a Facebook community and a blog called "Struggles and Summits" as a place to get us together to share our stories and challenges, and support and inspire each other. I have been over whelmed by the passion people have for this project. The hikers of the Adirondacks have been some of the kindest and most caring and encour- aging folks I've ever met. Within hours of the community link being posted, there were hun- dreds of likes, comments and well wishes. It showed me that not only do the Adirondacks have some of the most beautiful mountains, they have some of the most beautiful people as well.

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