Hike #2: Mount Major (Exhaustion creates Introspection)

Sunday, June 4th, I hiked Mount Major in Alton, which is right next to the beautiful Alton Bay, part of Lake Winnipesaukee. It's a medium hike- definitely a 2nd hike of the year, and would have felt like that if I wasn't atrociously out of shape. 

This is me when I first realized I was hurting, probably 30% in:

I should probably wear less apple shirts.

This is a nice hike because it really only gets hard for 1 section of awesome rocks, which, if you are in shape, is really neat. This is the view looking down:

I was hurting really bad after that section, just unable to breathe and feeling lactic acid like nobody's business in my legs. Just NOTHING. Hey, you know what's not a good thing to eat before trying to hike? Pizza and soda. Weird, huh?

Eventually, I got to the tree line. 

And finally, in a perfect summer music moment, I decided to switch from A Bullet For Pretty Boy (worst name ever, but solid mall metal with catchy singing) to The Boys of Summer, who sound like The Dangerous Summer (who put out my favorite album of 2010, "Reach For The Sun") and Blink-182 mixed together. They are sad and pretty, yet poppy and summery, and they fit reaching the top of this mountain PERFECTLY. 

I love Lake Winnipesaukee and the Lakes Region in general.

At the center of the top is a cool fort made of rock.

Solid mix of people who were as out of shape as me (one of whom is apparently pointing at me) and some serious dudes

And the other side looks like another planet.

Way too exhausted Mike

A friend, watching over me

I'll leave you with my 3 favorite pictures:

The clouds came out to make everything emo

and then the sun began to peek out.

Simply beautiful. And 1000% worth any pain.

I hiked down more quickly, as that's always been easier for me, and completely zoned out to a mix of Owen, Maybeshewill and This Will Destroy You. All in all, it was about 3, 3.5 hours- 1:40ish to the top, 20ish minutes of chilling, 40ish to the bottom.  I got back to the car and was feeling too good and too in love with summer to stop, so I went for a drive around beautiful Alton Bay.

This is what you see when you come into town. 

I rolled the windows down, blasted The Dangerous Summer and let the cool air in, just driving around the lake in pure emo bliss. It's moments like these that make me realize that summer is truly my favorite season. Fall is beautiful- music sounds better in the fall, food tastes better, things seem more important. Fall is full of memories and feelings and smells- from the first scent of fires to the feeling of a cool breeze blowing through my still-open windows while I wake up late to hear my parents watching football- everything related to fall is emotional and beautiful and full of memories. It was always easy to say that fall was my favorite season. But fall is final. Fall seems to end earlier every year- as soon as the leaves hit their most perfect colors, they seem to be blown to the ground and covered in snow. As soon as I have that perfect bike ride in all that color, night comes more quickly and I inevitably get sick from the falling temperatures. Fall is just one step closer to winter and always feels like I have to try and enjoy it as fast as possible before it disappears. 

Summer isn't like that. Summer feels like it starts earlier every year. Summer feels like possibility, like new beginnings, like life. I grew up on Lake Sebago in Raymond, Maine. I had a childhood full of running through the woods, biking up and down my dirt road, and spending entire summers under water- just 8 hours of swimming and exploring, every single day. Growing up on a lake forever ruined me- I never want to live anywhere else other than on a lake. And my love for lakes and everything surrounding them- swimming, fishing, boating, the feeling of being near water, and just watching the sun and clouds reflect off it seems to get stronger every year. We all get old and spend too much time at stupid jobs or staring at screens all day. There are few things as beautiful as watching the sun set on a lake.

Driving around Alton Bay on roads I'd never been on full of summer houses just killed me. I never lived a life of "pack your things kids! We're leaving the city and going to the lake!" I was always on the lake. that was normal to me. But now that I'm not, I feel like all of my summers were like that. I feel like I had a life of summer houses crammed together on a tiny lake, Massachusetts and New York license plates everywhere, crammed one way roads full of people just trying to find these moments that I grew up with every day. 

It's moments like these that make me realize that this is where I belong, and I need to do whatever I can for the rest of my life to continue having these moments. It's moments like these that make me realize I made the right decision in quitting my job, pushing the negativity out of my life and trying to find this. It's moments like these where I realize the importance and wonder of summer. And that's why summer is my favorite season. And I want to have the best summer I can, every year for the rest of my life. 

seriously, just download The Dangerous Summer- Reach For The Sun, and blast it with the windows down on a beautiful night drive.