Burning the Candle
Here I am, again, blogging past 11pm to try to keep up with my Blaugust goal. Although I am typically a night owl, this week I’ve been both night owl and early bird and it’s catching up with me.
Tomorrow, I have to wake up at 4:30am (in just five and half hours — yikes!) to be at a local trailhead ready to start hiking at 6am. It’ll be a long day of hiking and climbing up the Trap Dike — a very distinctive slot and slab that rises from the lake a the bottom of the Mt. Colden to its summit — with I think about 12 miles round-trip with several thousand feet of elevation gain, guiding clients on a rope system up through the steep and exposed terrain.
This is after a long day of personal climbing today, in which I was out from 10:30am until 9pm climbing at various crags in the area, culminating in a challenging route that I put up for ADK Climb Club.
Which was after a big day of guiding climbing yesterday from 8:30am till 4pm, and then a 5+ mile trail run up a mountain after work for ADK Run Club.
Which was after a big day on Monday of guiding climbing in the morning, and then doing personal climbing until after dark.
Which was after a day of canoeing with my wife in which we checked out a route that spits us out into the lake near our house.
And then on Friday I’ll have a big day of guiding a long hike (13 miles) up Gothics mountain with some clients that I took rock climbing on Monday.
Which will be followed by three days of canoe camping with my wife over the weekend.
Which will be followed by an afternoon of guiding rock climbing.
Which will be followed by — hopefully! — a rest day. 😮💨
To be clear, this is in no way a complaint. I love doing all these activities. I feel so fortunate to live and work in a place with such access to my favorite outdoor activities, and a great community of friends (and clients) to share it all with.
It’s just that I feel, sometimes, lately, a bit worn thin. I know I need to take more time to recover so that I can perform at my best. But. There’s so much that I want to do, and any day of good weather feels like a gift that I shouldn’t squander.
These lyrics from Hamilton’s “Non-Stop” come to mind:
How do you write like you’re running out of time?
Write day and night like you’re running out of time?
Every day you fight like you’re running out of time
Like you’re running out of time
Are you running out of time?
This is post #6/31 for Blaugust 2025.