The Climb....

My roommate and I went hiking this morning. We decided to hike up to Bells Canyon reservoir because it's fairly close to our house and is also a beautiful place to hike. I'm not sure if any of you are very familiar with Bells Canyon but it has two trailheads. The first is the easiest but it takes longer to hike. The second is a lot harder but doesn't take quite as long. My roommate really wanted to get a good workout in this morning so she suggested we take the faster, more challenging trail. Not really knowing what to expect but feeling like I was in relatively good enough shape to handle it, I agreed.

This is how the trail looked pretty much the entire way up:


It may not look that steep but oh my gosh! I had to stop about three times to catch my breath because my lungs just couldn't handle it. I really felt like I was going to die. But alas, I did not. I did hear from another girl (who randomly started talking to us) that a couple of people on the trail were throwing up. So see, I wasn't kidding when I said it kicks your butt.

Here is the view at the top:


The hike was challenging and, I'll be honest, not very fun for me at all (thank goodness it was only 20 minutes!). But getting to the top and seeing all the beauty that surrounded us was worth every bit of the journey to get there. I like to think this is how life is. The journey itself might be extremely hard. Sometimes we might have to traverse boulders and bushes that stand in our way; sometimes we may feel like we just want to turn back. But if we keep going, if we keep climbing, we will make it to the top someday and the reward will be completely worth it.

So the moral of the story is: don't stop climbing and don't stop believing that something great will be waiting for you at the top - because it will be.