Page 26 - Life's Outtakes 11

the water and only carry what we

would need to get us back to that

point. My daughters readily agreed.

We put the full water bottles into

some brush and continued our climb.

The higher we climbed, the more one

daughter struggled with lack of

oxygen. We started setting a goal of

a hundred steps, then rest. A hundred

steps, then rest. That later turned to

seventy-five, then fifty, as the trail

turned ever steeper.

More and more people passed us,

but when a man who looked to be

about eighty walked by, I began to

question if I was delusional,

especially since he was smiling. I