Back during Spring break of 2016, I took a trip down from Michigan to Kentucky. I went on this trip with one of my best friends Isaac, his dad, and my dad. We were going for fun and adventure to do something we’d never done before. It started when we arrived and set up camp with tents that should only be used in church. Holy tents. I was disappointed that I hadn’t found the holes before we came, but looking back I realized I hadn’t checked them before we left. Seeing that you can’t survive  the rain very well without a solid tent we found an old roll of duct tape to patch several small holes. After this was done we threw a frisbee back and forth. Trying to impress some girls wandering by Isaac and I threw trick shots back and forth. We didn’t manage to get the girls attention, but I did manage to hit Isaac’s dad right on the head, there was blood. Another downside of the first night. He said he was fine, but since then I’ll always warn someone if there is something coming for their head.

Late that night, the four of us had had nothing to eat since noon, we were hungry. My dad brought up the pizza place we had passed on the way here. The place was called Miguel’s. It was a yellow building with kind of a saloon feeling when you walked in through the front. They had a very wide variety of toppings you could put on your pizza. Ham, salami, onions, grilled onions, chicken, bacon, sausage, peppers, noodles, pepperoni, and eggs just to name a few of their choices. We got two pizzas, and played it safe with one of them by getting just bacon. The other pizza we got a little crazy ordering  noodles and mushrooms. I felt a little uncomfortable eating a pizza with noodles on it, but on this trip I would soon realize being pushed out of your comfort zone was a good thing.
The next morning I awoke to the chilly morning breeze of the hills, and got out of my tent to taking care of usual morning things. I saw Mr. Ekstrom sitting at our little picnic table whistling as he prepared breakfast for himself, a granola bar with peanut butter on it. “Good morning, Alec.” He said from across camp.

“Morning, Mr. Ekstrom,” I could hardly talk my throat was so dry. I walked over to get a glass of water, then Isaac emerged from his tent half asleep rubbing his eyes. My dad was already awake, I spotted him coming back from the restroom.

He got back to camp and said, “seems like a good day for climbing, maybe a little cold, but we can manage.” I could hear the excitement in his voice. I however, was unsure how to feel about climbing. I’d never gone climbing or done any climbing like this before. We were going to a place called the Via Ferrata in Red River Gorge, Kentucky. Family owned, the property boasted a horseshoe shaped cut out of a cliff and all along the face of the rock they put rebar and made a course with wire to hook a harness to. It sounded really cool, and there was a waterfall in about the middle of the course. I was nervous but I was ready to climb these cliffs.

  The hilly drive there was interesting for someone who has lived in Michigan their whole life. When we had arrived it looked like someone had taken a massive bite out of the cliffside. This made me sort of uneasy at the fact that some of these rock faces were every bit of 250 feet tall. As we walked over to the large wooden building to check in we were greeted by a rather fluffy dog followed by a nice lady, who turned out to the owner. We talked with her for quite some time about the history of the place. She called out to Greg to get us suited up and paid. Then Greg took us to the training course. It was this short little thing to get you used to the clips and cable safety wire. The training course made me think back to climbing on the small rock walls in playgrounds with Isaac. The ones with little plastic handles and a wooden wall. Except this course had some rebar that took you over a rock, and I was starting to get excited to start the course. This didn’t seem so bad, it’s going to be fun I would say to myself. After the training course was the real deal; no more little rocks. Let me describe the first tiny section of the course; climb straight up. It was a straight line maybe a hundred feet up, keep in mind this was the “easy section” and all Greg said was, “good luck guys, have fun.” Alright Greg whatever you say.
Surprisingly, we made it up and to the first portion of one with relative ease and as much as I was surprised to admit , I was having a blast! Climbing was not only a lot of fun and exhausting, but it had a degree of satisfaction that put a little cherry on top. Before we knew it we had finished the first three sections-The novice ones-in no time at all.

“Here comes section Four!” Isaac was enjoying this even more than I was and he couldn’t wait to conquer the more challenging sections. I’ll be the first to admit the beginning of part four was quite difficult to get through. I had to get pretty creative with my feet and where to put them. My arms were getting tired and my moral was going down, this was much harder than the first section. We managed through the very end of the forth section, and all decided it was time for a lunch break. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to finish all six.

“I’m not sure if I want to, or can do the rest of the course. Maybe we can just stop after five.” I wasn’t confident that I could make it through if the course was any harder than before. My arms were tired from carrying me and my mind was tired too.

“Don’t be silly Alec, we came here to climb and we’re all going to finish.” Mr. Ekstrom assured me that all of us would finish. After lunch we got back to it and went to the beginning of part five. To get back on the course you had to climb up a good distance, similar to section one, but now climbing up felt different. In a way, I felt stronger than I had in the beginning. Maybe it was Mr. Ekstrom at lunch, or maybe it was Isaac in front of me, or maybe my confidence was increasing. Whatever it was, after I realized what I did at the beginning of the day. I was sure that I could make it through to the end of all of the sixth section “the black diamond”.

After we had made it past section five there was a “bridge” to get to section six. I say bridge because It connected the two parts(Five and Six), but it was really just a cable with two cables over you to hang on. Call me crazy, but of all the parts, I was most looking forward to this bridge. I spotted it when we had come in, and I was dying to cross it this whole time. When I got to the middle I broke the famous “don’t look down rule”. It was one of the coolest sights I’ve ever seen. Imagine yourself 100 feet in the air. Underneath you is a tiny babbling creek, huge trees that try to come close to catching your toes and a path only meant for true adventure. Satisfied, I looked up and continued to the end of six. It got kind of grueling during a long stretch on the side of the cliff, holding oneself with only their toes and fingers can be. Suddenly I turned along a corner of the rock face and there was rebar going straight down. I had made it.

When I got to the ground I saw Isaac come around next, then my dad, then Mr. Ekstrom and we were all on the ground together just like how we started. “Ready for round two?” My dad said with a smirk on his face.
“No way,” I replied, even though I wanted to be on the bridge again.

That day was one of the best experiences of my life. I was surprised learn so much more about myself over this short period of time. I was pushed a lot further than I ever cared to be, and now I’m glad of it. This trip was hard for me. I had to overcome all sorts of simple struggles, but with encouragement and motivation from family and friends you see that difficult paths will most certainly lead to the most beautiful destinations.