Summertime 2024 3: Put Some Nature in your Summer part one. THE CLIMB

 Well duh.  

Before my Mother sold our wonderful cottage in the woods, I had some fantasies, or  ideas of somehow organizing a camp, or at least weekends for lower income family kids who may not have the ability to get out of their cities or towns to get to nature in summer. A nice thought, whether I would have been ambitious enough to carry it through is another story.  Maybe... not.  

The point being, that in the summer, it is important, ne essential, to get away from your regular school year residence and hit the nature trail.  I admire a good friend who always first got up to New Hampshire with his father, and now with his wife and kids to take hiking trails in some range of mountains.  My sister with her friend living on the edge of Appalachia regularly hike into the "innards" of Appalachia in the summer (so much so that she claims she is now more hillbilly than J.D. Vance :) ).  

I have spent every summer of my life, save two, in the backwoods of upper Michigan.  And naturally now for well over a decade I have continued that with my kids.  While we still have a rather comfortable residence with many modern amenities, pretty much every step of our lives for the three to four weeks is in nature, save the shopping trips.  Even the library is a little country library next to an old school that exudes back woods.  

Its a new perspective.  Just like grown ups should listen to different opinions that they may not agree with, all people, but especially kids should get out to nature in the summer as an "opinion" that they dont "meet up with" during the school year.    

We have been doing it so long that my daughters are used to it and get along fine with nature, in nature.  But for the past two years I have tried to extend the challenge and gone out to nature that we havent been to yet.  In 2023 we got to a big nature preserve which had old growth trees which are often over 150 years old.  I organized that one and was happy with it somewhat. 

photo Ben DeYoung

This year, we have been talking about it for a couple years and this year we finally did it.  A nature challenge.  Every year my friend and his daughter and me and my kids go to the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes.  At the dunes there is an incredible steep dune hill which goes directly down to Lake Michigan.  It is great fun to take giant leaps like walking on the moon running down a 90 degree slope to the water.  The problem is that then you also have to walk back up it.  

About 20 years ago I did this run down to the lake with my wife and then... we made the walk up. I recall it took us, or me, roughly 45 minutes to go up (less than 5 minutes to run down).  It was a tough walk even for me twenty years ago. I knew it was tough. That is why I told my youngest daughter for several years, no not yet, you cant do it yet, you are too young. No, not this year.  But this year, as I knew several months ago and wrote in a post, I knew she was old enough to do it.  

And did it she did. 

Frankly I didnt expect her to make the climb so well.  I have to admit that I didnt think I was in good enough shape to do it, so I went down about half way and waited for her to come to my point and then I would go with her. While I was waiting and sitting there in the sand off to one side, a couple frat boys really big in the mid section came straggling up the hill.  One couldnt do it and he would get some energy to take ten steps quickly then lie flat on his face in his sand.  Mean spirited person that I am I was hoping he wouldnt get up and he would just throw up and lie there in his vomit.  See I heard them talking that they had been drinking this morning as frat boys do most mornings and that maybe it wasnt a good idea to do before the climb.  I think the dead weight dick did eventually make it up, but I did see a pile of throw up on the wooden plank bridge and I assume it was done by probably him.  Great.  

And then more quickly than I thought would happen, there was my daughter sitting around 50 meters away.  She started up and i signaled her to my spot and gave her a long drink of water from my water bottle.  Then i started up with her. But... it wasnt long before I was eating her dust, and then not even that but she was way ahead of me.  My little half way climb took me 33 minutes, if I remember, or maybe that was my daughter who did the whole climb in 33 minutes, maybe both.  She wasnt even tired.  

My friend with his daughter came staggering up totally spent and got to the finish line at respectively 1 hr and 11 minutes and 1 hour and 20 minutes. He is the same age as I am.  My friend told me that at one steep point below he was seriously afraid because his heart was pounding, racing like a motorboat and he thought he would explode or something.  I have only respect for him, because he looks like Father Christmas, but he did the climb.  He said the only thing just about that kept him going was that there was no way he was going to call in the coast guard and be rescued by helicopter for like 2000 dollars.  It made him forge ahead.  I, didnt even think I should or could do it.  I didnt chicken out, but I decided that maybe I was not up to it. I did half.  I dont deserve to redeem myself, BUT, I really should do the whole climb next year and see how much over an hour it takes me.  In shape or not.  I can lie there like a drunken frat boy if I have to rest, but I really ought to do it.  

I heard a 40 ish woman who was built like a body builder claim she did it in 15 minutes without even stooping down or putting her hands in the sand but walking upright the whole time. If you saw the angle of this hill you would understand that it is just as easy to walk up on all fours.  She was built, but I didnt believe her for a minute.  No way Jose.  I want to do it next year no matter how old I am or how much lazy fat I have on me.  I have to redeem myself and get back to nature. I am sure my daughter will want to do it too. She will probably run up the hill. Oh, its getting me nervous thinking about it.  Time to train.  

Listened to this when I was making corrections. I have one more copy in the shop from my order.  Its a classic.  Pink Flag from Wire.  1977 release.