He looked back once more, knowing his future would be forever changed. The day started off with a cold brisk gust of wind hitting my face. It was 6:00 in the morning and I made my way out of my one person tent. I stand up and stretch feeling my entire body unravel from the fetus position my body got stuck in during the frigid night. I look around me seeing the colorful scene of nature surrounding me. The tall sequoias and the bright blue skies and the endless songs the birds are singing. I turn around and start packing my bag and tent up, ready to start my journey by climbing the route that many men and women have died on. On my way up to the route I'm going to scale today I am going through every type of scenario in my head. The one where my fingers might be so exhausted and chalked up that I loose grip and splat! Or the one scenario where I sike myself out and do not take the right step or reach to the right divet in the rock wall. All of these are playing through in my head and I’m starting to doubt myself. I say out loud “stop!”. I put my earbuds in and and drown out my thoughts with the sweet beats of The Lumineers “Ophelia”.

The hike itself takes four hours, so my plan is to get to two hours then stop and rest then eat some protein bars and refuel so when I start my last two hours I won’t be fatigued. I stop at a little stream to splash some cold water onto my face. Making me feel a little refreshed and less stressed for the challenge I’m about to have. I stand back up from the crouched position I was in and I begin the last two hours. The sun is high in the sky today, giving no mercy to the ones right under it. I can feel the sweat drip from my forehead to the tip of my nose. The back sweat drenching my shirt. My legs covered in a light layer of wetness that my body is just pushing out, specifically the crevasse of where the back of your knee meets. Overlooking the amount of sweat my body is producing in this California heat I’m almost to my destination. The sun is slowly setting and I realize the hike took longer than expected. I make the decision to camp out one more night taking in the beauty of Yosemite. I set up my tent looking up at the orange and red hues of the sky. Realizing that nature is so beautiful and that I’m so lucky to have been able to make this trip possible. I quickly start a fire before it becomes to cold out and put some hamburger meat over it. I grab a bun and lather baked beans all over the top and bottom of the bun then I reach for my patty and I hear a rustling noise coming from the left side of where I'm sitting. I’m frozen in the position I’m in and I slowly turn my head to the left, making sure to make as little sound as possible. I bring my eyes from the ground and up and what is sitting in front of me is a grizzly bear! Mouth open, all fours ready to move and take a chunk out of me. I am still frozen, I look at the patty still in my right hand and I, with all my energy throw it at the bear. You could hear the patty smacking the bear in the face. The bear lets out a huge roar and starts running toward me. I get up off the log I’m sitting on and start running as fast as I could. I didn’t care about the climbing anymore, I didn’t care about my things. I was way to focused on getting out of these woods alive. I could not tell you how long I was running, I didn’t stop. I refused to look back, it’s like in those scary movies when the character looks back and then the monster is right in front of them when they turn back around. No, I was not about to be that person to make that mistake. I run till I’m at somewhat the edge of the woods. I stand behind a tree catching my breath. Thinking how did I get myself into this situation. I can’t die I say out loud, I can’t!I look to my left and then to my right. I turn myself slowly out from the tree and there it is. The grizzly bear, grinning it’s teeth at me, almost mocking me. I take off running again and looking back, knowing my future would never be the same after tonight.