Jackassalope

I could be wrong but...

I'm hiking Mount St. Helens next month with some friends and acquaintances, and I'm having a hard time trying to figure out why they are making it such a big deal out of it. I don't think that I'm some superman or anything, but this can't be that hard. It's a ten mile hike which gets up to elevations of 4500 feet. Not that bad. Upon reading about some of the trail descriptions on the website, they seem to be described as "more difficult," which doesn't sound too intimidating. Yet, I get emails every week from the people I'm going with talking about how they have 3 or 4 practice hikes scheduled. They repeatedly make mention of this being a 'big day' and 'an undertaking' where training is 'a must'. Really?

All I'm saying is that I went on a day hike in Montana at a family reunion a couple years ago that had a steep vertical grade (we went from 5,500 feet to 10,000 feet in the course of 4.5 miles), and there was no preperation involved. I carried my 4-month-old daughter on my back with my wife by my side. And did I mention that we had 2 very pregnant women come along.

Yes, it's a 10-mile hike up a mountain. And I totally respect people wanting to be in shape for it. But do we really need all of this melodramatic lead up. Can't we just say that were going to hike St. Helens and it's going to be fun? We'll see some sights and explore some trails, so here's to a fun day.

Again, I could be wrong. I could be completely underestimating this thing. But deep down, I don't think that's the case.