After hiking 20 miles yesterday and hiking over two hours in the dark, I was relieved to make it back to the trailhead and get in my car.
After losing time escorting others off the trail I knew it would take a monster effort the final days to finish by the deadline. I know you all would have accepted my effort regardless being the amazing people that you are, but I owed you nothing less than my best.
The past 5 days were hell and I’m having trouble walking but I can tell you this: in the past month, I hiked, climbed, and scrambled my way on foot to and from the summit of all 48 four thousand footers in New Hampshire. The week prior to that I did all five in Vermont. I am sorry to say I ran out of time and did not get to go to Maine to do the fourteen mountains there.
I am going to make a separate video montage for each organization I hiked for with the summit photos and text/voice over explaining why I support the organization. Then I will post the link on YouTube and forward it to you. Each organization will have its own video. My goal is for it to generate donations/raise awareness for your organization. I have a pretty clear vision of what I’d like to do and I think you’ll like it. It should take me a few weeks.
Thank you all for believing in me. My own mother and father did not see anything of value in me so your belief is something I do not take lightly. I did what I did to help children, but the more I think about it I think there is a secondary factor as well. All those years I was told that I was worthless because I wasn’t good-looking, athletic, etc. And my mother was right, I am not Rock Hudson or a great athlete. But the measure of a human being is not whether someone can slam dunk a basketball or look like a movie star. There is something much more substantial than all of that, and I’d like to think of it as the power of the human spirit. And I think I showed some of that spirit on my hikes.
I hope others are inspired to believe that they too are capable of more than they ever thought possible.
Above is a photo from the final mountain, Bondcliff.
See you soon, I’m coming home!
Blog post submitted by: MBA student Mike McLaughlin
