Nut Up or Shut Up: Nut up or Shut up weekend Fall 2011

Wow, what a weekend. Having been an avid Sugarloafer all my life, I have always looked across the valley at the Bigelow mountain range and dreamed of hiking it. While I've done many hikes before, I've never done a big overnight hike (but I have done wilderness trips) so this was a first for me. I had also never hiked with a large pack before. Since I didn't need much for an overnight hike, my bag mostly consisted of sleeping gear, warm clothes, food and water.

In order to get some of the prehike jitters out, I went with my cousin and a friend to do chick hill, which is in east bumf*@k, Maine and it is a very short but steep hike. It was hard and I was seriously huffing and puffing, but it felt great and I knew I was ready for Bigelow....or so I thought.

We completely underestimated how much hiking we would have to do and how steep it was going to be. We ended up hiking about 14 miles in 2 days, and that was cutting out a major chunk of the end part of our hike. The real challenge of the hike was mentally moving past the pain and fatigue in my body. Hiking that much is hard on your legs anyway, but adding a 25lb bag to it really ups the ante. And it seemed like every time we came up out of the woods onto another peak we still had so far to go. I can't tell you though how amazing it was to reach the top of our final peak, see Sugarloaf in the distance, and see how far we had come in just one day.

In order to get through to our campsite we had to move at a fairly fast paced with a few short breaks after each steep (10 minutes max). I literally had to just block out every thought of pain or misery, get in the zone and barrel on. When we made it back to the car Sunday afternoon I can't even begin to describe the feeling of accomplishment. Even though we didn't do the entire loop we had originally planned we still did an insane amount of hiking in two days, especially since two of us hadn't done any hiking this summer.

The whole experience really just made me realize I can overcome any obstacle, mental or physical, if I just set my mind to it and truck on. It was also so amazing to connect back to nature, and it has definitely inspired me to do more hiking. This hike challenged me so much and pushed me so far out of my comfort zone that it really showed me what my true potential is. I truly feel like I can do anything right now. It has also inspired to keep working hard with my weight loss goals by challenging my self physically, eating healthy, and trying to get back to some of the things that keep me grounded.
I encourage everyone to get out there and do something that really pushes your boundaries. It will make you a better person.
And yes, because I know you're all wondering, I did shit in the woods.