TAKE A HIKE!

jillwirt (59)in #travel • 8 years ago (edited)

There’s something to be said about hiking up a 9,738 foot mountain with your previously alcoholic dad in the dead of summer. This is a travel story about my dad and I hiking the daunting Mount Tallac above Lake Tahoe this past July.
All photos were taken with my iPhone, except for one I took a screen shot off of google maps :)

To give you some background…. My dad was absent for most of my teen years. He was an alcoholic that went through rehab twice, spent some time in prison, and got into drugs. My parents divorced, he moved out, and my mom pretty much did everything for my sister and I until we graduated high school. My dad would show up every now and then, we always could bond over volleyball. I always had this emotional attachment to him that maybe he would get better, that I need to be there for him all the time. And when I went away to college, I truly believed he was recovering until I went home for spring break, saw my dad when he had a relapse, and had to drive him home because he was drunk. I decided at that time to break any emotional ties with him because my spirit was absolutely defeated. He’s still my dad, though, still my blood given father and I will always love him. We still kept in touch every now and then, but I never really knew what he was up to, or where he was living.

Now, he has been sober for 2 years, going to AA meetings everyday, and even when he is on vacation, he goes to his meetings. I actually attended an AA meeting with him back in January when he was visiting Maui. I continue to learn so much from my dad because I am seeing him go through a spiritual transformation. Growing up without a father around all the time did some damage to my mental health, however it taught me a lot of lessons that I’m able to use in my early adult years. Adversity builds character, and I wouldn’t change any circumstances from my past if I had the choice.

My dad has always been active: beach volleyball, basketball, golf, and hiking are some of his favorites to name a few. I take after my dad in a lot of ways, so I always enjoy getting to spend time with him. This summer in July, I went home to Northern CA for this first time since May 2014. I stayed with my dad and his girlfriend, and got to see my dad’s side of the family in Lake Tahoe. I hadn’t been to Lake Tahoe since I was 17. Needless to say, I was very excited to go on vacation and spend time with my family and especially my dad.

Us in Lake Tahoe after a game of beach volleyball.

I absolutely love that I get to call California my state of origin. It’s huge, diverse, and beautiful landscape has many hidden gems. I grew up in Northern California, just north of Sacramento about 2 hours away from Lake Tahoe. My dad’s side of the family had a cabin in Lake Tahoe on the Southeast shore near Zephyr Cove on the Nevada side of the lake, which is where we spent most of our summers when I was a kid. Now, since the cabin got knocked down because the ground lease expired, my grandma rents a place up there every year for the family to gather together. This year, I finally got to go!

(image from google maps)

Mount Tallac is a daunting mountain, not for the faint hearted, standing powerfully at 9,738 feet above sea level, looming over Lake Tahoe.
Mount Tallac in the distance!

I wanted to hike it with my dad. I didn’t know what I was getting myself into at the time until I started the hike (we were already at 6,200 feet) as I started panting about 30 minutes in.
Little did I know I had another 2 and a half hours to go of steep inclines, rocky terrains, and little shade the higher up we got. Starting the hike, I was excited and ready for the challenge, I could see the summit and I was thinking, “How the hell am I going to do this? It’s so far up!”
Looking at the summit from the start of the hike.

We hiked through forests of tall pine trees and fields of wildflowers, streams and little lakes along the way.

Once we got to where I thought the summit was, dotted with patches of snow…

Top of snow patch in above photo.

We climbed to the top of that “little” mountain, turned the corner and saw the real Tallac summit another hour and a half away.

My dad has done this climb multiple times; once when my parents were married, a couple times on his own, and then with me. Making our way up the REAL summit, eager to see the panoramic views from the top, eat some lunch and guzzle water, we were seeing epic views of the desolation wilderness: Lake Aloha, Tamarack Lake, Lake of the Woods, Triangle Lake and many more.

FINALLY…. We hit the summit!!!

Hiking up a mountain is a direct metaphor to life: You see this giant challenge looming in front of you, something that is clearly larger, tougher, and meaner than you think you can handle, but what are you going to choose to do with it? Are you going to freaking climb that thing and make it your bitch so you can learn something from it, sit and stare at it for a while and kinda tackle it, but not really and turn back, or turn around and walk away completely?

We face challenges everyday throughout our lives, whether they be big or small. Recovering alcoholics face the challenge of drinking or not drinking every single day, because one drink can spiral out of control. My dad has been through some shit. Seriously. Talk to any recovering alcoholic or drug addict and you will have a different view of suffering. Alcohol withdrawals are more dangerous than any drug withdrawal you can have. But not only the withdrawals, but stories of temptation, struggle, challenges with relationships…having an addiction comes with a lot of baggage. Seeing how much my dad has recovered, and is continuing to recover makes me so thankful to have a conscious and sober dad, who I can now approach with most of my problems. He has given me some of the most positive, encouraging, wise, and spiritual feedback I have ever received recently.

I look back on this hike and think about how thankful I am for experiences like those with my dad. I checked “hiking Mount Tallac” off my bucketlist, and added a memory to the “things with dad” file in my brain.

Thanks for hiking with me!

Jill