Walter, one of Geoff’s life mentors, had a simple way of looking at life:

“You win some, you lose some and some get rained out”

It’s a beautiful expression that sums up the ups and downs in life in a succinct, perfect way. We’ve all had our wins, losses and rainouts, and that’s life (and baseball).

Well, Walter, this one got rained out. I mean literally, there was so much rain that the hike became a burden instead of a joy. It happens, apparently.

Mirror Lake sits in the shadow of Tom, Dick and Harry mountain near Mount Hood. On a good day, you can see the reflection of Mount Hood in a pristine, beautiful lake. On an average day, you can get some beautiful views of fog lifting off of the water in beautiful wisps and trees and nature stuff.

On a bad day, you can get a soaked, broken camera, a soggy pair of shoes, and a general vagueness on why you are here in the first place. This was a bad day.

Being either too stupid to know it’s dangerous or too stubborn to care, we walked right up the water logged path and to the lake above. It was muddy, icy, and the rain wouldn’t let up even a little. Wind, so much wind. And it was so worth it.

Nature is there no matter what. If it’s raining, and we don’t go check it out, it’s only our loss. So pushing things and figuring where the lines are is part of the process- and now we know.

It was raining so hard at certain points that we couldn’t even lift our heads up without getting a face full of water. At Mirror Lake the rain was coming down in sharp, cold sheets of wind that felt like gallons of water hitting us. We couldn’t even take a single photo before our lenes got soaked, foggy and spotty. If it wasn’t for our REI rain pants and Columbia jackets we would have been soaked to the core as well.

We called the hike shortly after arriving at the lake, not completing the loop. One of the hardest things is to realize the difference between meeting a challenge and fighting through it and not having fun anymore. At this point, we weren’t having fun any more, so we left.

 

On the way down we were kinda miserable so we started to list the positive things. We listed a few ideas that were all uniquely positive, but the core of all of them was gratitude. Grateful for the day. For our health. For the time with a loved one. For the rain that was falling down from the sky. For the ability to wander. For life. For love.

Maybe it wasn’t that bad of a hike after all!