Mountain hiking presents many opportunities to overcome challenges. On this steep, rock faced section of the ascent to Big Slide Mountain in the Adirondacks, a ladder has been bolted into the mountain. In other locations one must scale a rock face or get over a high ledge. Ledges and scary looking descents are also to be found. Sir Edmund Hillary, who was the first man to lead a successful expedition to the top of Mount Everest, said "It is not the mountain we conquer but ourselves." His words are a truthful reminder that the greatest obstacles we face are the many obstacles inside ourselves, that hold us back from facing the challenges before us. These obstacles are often in tension with each other. We can be too full of doubt or fear but we can also be the opposite of that - overconfident, both of which are dangerous to our well-being and to meeting our goals.
At one point on the climb to Mt. Marshall, I realized that my mind was filled with a number of worries that didn't have anything to do with successfully getting to the top of Mt. Marshall. I was thinking about the descent, the hike out to the trailhead and the long drive home. None of those thoughts were doing me any good during the climb. On top of that, we had wisely abandoned our effort to scale Mt. Marshall two days earlier due to increasingly hazardous flowing water conditions on the stream that the trail crossed six or more times, so I also had the previous thoughts of failure to overcome. I had to decide at one point that I would have but one thought in my mind - hiking to the top of Mt. Marshall.
We together succeeded this time in our climb and were rewarded with beautiful views of Iroquois and other mountains and our own happy faces.
