In the beautiful lands of Squamish, BC there is a mountain known as The Chief. With three peaks and multiple areas where you must forge your own trail, making it to the top of the third peak will go down as one of my most proud accomplishments. I had no idea what I was in for when two of my friends dragged my lazy-wanna-be-active butt out on that Thursday morning, this was no hike I was used to. Yes there were stairs and easy to navigate trails, but there were also rocks with no end in sight that I had to crawl over. Then at times I had to crab walk on my way down. I’m a little bitter I was given no heads up on this but I don’t know if I would have gone with foresight.
It took a while and a great amount of patience from two wonderful friends, but I made it. I can only begin to describe the feeling of accomplishment, satisfaction and peace I felt at the top of that beast of a mountain. There was a beautiful view and it was amazingly quiet. It was so much to take in during such a short time. A year ago, let alone four months ago, I never would have been able to make it much further past the stairs. It proved my hard work and dedication was finally beginning to pay off. I can honestly say, if you’re needing a reason to motivate yourself into becoming healthy, the moment you realize how far you’ve come is more worth it than you can imagine. And being able to realize this while enjoying the beautiful outdoors was like a cherry on top of my healthy sundae.
The Chief: Third Peak - 702 m (2,303 ft)
{on the way up a good part of the trail}
{view from the top}
I wish I could have had my DSLR for parts to grab some good photos but the iPhone had to do.
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