Why Stairs Scare Me

As I sat in the warm heated seat safety of my car and read the description for Rosy Mound Natural Area, I thought "I can't do this".

The thought of climbing 1,000 feet of stairs up the sand dune scared the living daylights out of me. You see for most of my adult life I have had on and off problems with my low back and my hips. It seems every time I get over eager and climb a lot of stairs, my hips hate me for days afterwards. I never know when they will completely call it quits and one will "pop" out of place leaving me couchbound and visiting the Chiropractor every other day for weeks.

But then I can't live in fear for the rest of my life. I haven't had a bad episode in a few years and I have climbed some stairs during that time. I do stretching and strengthening exercises daily, as well as, daily walks.

It was time to face my fear head on. I was already here, no point in driving somewhere else.  I was going to have to tackle this park sooner or later, since it was an Ottawa County Park and I vowed to visit them all in my year of being 44. Sitting in my car in the parking lot does not count as a visit.

I gathered up my courage and opened the car door, put a tentative foot on the ground and then I was out, out in the scary world leading to stairs.

I looked at the park map once I was out and saw that the stairs were broken up by paths and nicely spaced landings. There also was a handicap accessible trail that I could go on if worse came to worst. I ventured off...

Oh what beauty...beautiful stairs made for meandering up, not those straight up, no rest for the wicked, my thighs are burning stairs.

Some of the beautiful sights and scenes along my climb...

I made it to the top of the dune looking down on to Lake Michigan. It was a bit windy and chilly up there and my eyes were watering like crazy so it was a little hard to focus my camera.

 I didn't venture down to the lake, it was just too windy and cold. I will leave that for a future visit. A good excuse to come back and look my stair climbing fear in the face and smile...and start climbing.

Linking up with Lissa A. Forbes at laf Custom designs, please check out where the other Walk and Click Explorers went this week.