Hiking essay
This is the begining of my hiking essay, though I couldn't find the rest of it. Just a reminder of a Marine Corps Hump.
Hiking
It was about 0445, or if you don’t know military time 4:45 AM, and I was miserable. After drinking until 0200, vomiting anything close to nutritional out of my body at 0210, and finally falling asleep somewhere around 0230, I was gracefully woken up at 0400 with a slap to the head and told the Battalion was to go on a hike (what we call a hump) at 0430. After stumbling around my barracks room for twenty minuets, frantically looking at the gear list with my blurry red eyes, I assembled the 80 plus pounds of crap I was supposed to put on my back for the next 15 miles. So it was 0445, I was sweating liquor, my mouth felt as dry and gritty as the 29 Palms desert I was walking on, and I had never felt as much pain in every area of my body as I did those 15 minuets.
Maybe it was the lack of good sleep, or the cheap whisky, but suddenly I felt Zen like. I noticed the stars, felt the night air, took a deep breath of fresh O2. I noticed for the first time, since I found a pair of them under my sleeping bag, the scorpions and other animal life scurrying around, getting ready for the sun to make its appearance. The eastern horizon of the rough desert landscape gradually went from grey, to red, and then orange. The beauty of the desert country reflected the first golden peak of sunlight. We were heading north east at the time, and I had a front seat view of the beginning of the world. In five minuets I went from totally miserable, to totally content. Why couldn’t all people feel this way all the time?
Hiking
It was about 0445, or if you don’t know military time 4:45 AM, and I was miserable. After drinking until 0200, vomiting anything close to nutritional out of my body at 0210, and finally falling asleep somewhere around 0230, I was gracefully woken up at 0400 with a slap to the head and told the Battalion was to go on a hike (what we call a hump) at 0430. After stumbling around my barracks room for twenty minuets, frantically looking at the gear list with my blurry red eyes, I assembled the 80 plus pounds of crap I was supposed to put on my back for the next 15 miles. So it was 0445, I was sweating liquor, my mouth felt as dry and gritty as the 29 Palms desert I was walking on, and I had never felt as much pain in every area of my body as I did those 15 minuets.
Maybe it was the lack of good sleep, or the cheap whisky, but suddenly I felt Zen like. I noticed the stars, felt the night air, took a deep breath of fresh O2. I noticed for the first time, since I found a pair of them under my sleeping bag, the scorpions and other animal life scurrying around, getting ready for the sun to make its appearance. The eastern horizon of the rough desert landscape gradually went from grey, to red, and then orange. The beauty of the desert country reflected the first golden peak of sunlight. We were heading north east at the time, and I had a front seat view of the beginning of the world. In five minuets I went from totally miserable, to totally content. Why couldn’t all people feel this way all the time?
posted by Caldernides corner at 2:42 PM
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