The Island pt. 5

We began following the overgrown path that snaked through the tall island grass. The path led indirectly towards the steep hills and then turned to the right. Occasionally, we looked back to see if anyone had followed us, but again, we had the place to ourselves. As we walked, we continued to glance out into the distance both in front of us and to the right of us. Slowly, the ground began to rise, and we looked at more and more of the surrounding water and land. Not only were we gaining in elevation, but the ground we were walking on was becoming less and less grassy, and replacing the grass with dirt and rock.

Not only did it become rockier, but the path also became steeper. The further we went, the slower our steps became. Occasionally, I would pull out my phone to look at the map to ensure we were heading correctly. The issue was that we were heading perfectly, but the hiking was not like it had been. The most irking attribute of the present trail, not in my current state but definitely in Deb's view, was that instead of looking out or down at the trail, we had to look further up at it. I glanced back to ask Deb how she was doing, and to my surprise, she was not directly behind me. She was not even close to me.

I stopped and waited for her to catch up with me. 'You doing alright?' I asked. 'I am fine,' she growled at me. Then, before the last words could leave her mouth, she stated matter-of-factly that she was not ok, but we were not presently in a place where it made any difference. After hearing her response, I began looking at my phone map again. We were almost halfway between, so we needed to decide whether to turn around or continue. 'I need to take a break and rest, I think I am starting to overheat,' she stated. 'Yeah, no problem,' I responded. Turning, Deb found a rock and sat down on it, using it as a small stool. ' Maybe I should take this sweatshirt off,' she continued. After she had peeled it off, we both realized that it was drenched with sweat. She remarked that she was amazingly cooler and felt a lot better after taking it off. I added that I believed we just had to go a little further, and then we would be at the top. 'Are you sure we are almost to the top?' she asked. 'Yeah. Looking at the map, it shows the path curving to the left,' was my response. To which it was true. The path went to the left after we reached the top. What we quickly found out, though, is that while the trail went to the left, it continued to ascend. Not only was it more and more steep, but we needed to reach out to steady ourselves on the precarious path. ' I think we just have to go just a little bit further to the top,' I said, attempting to encourage Deb, along with giving her a pep talk. Her response was, ' How many times have you said that now?' I stopped and looked at her. My response was simply, 'Touché.'

We did make it up to the top of that peak. Briefly pausing, we looked at where the path went, and sure enough, it continued up another hill. 'I think we just have to go a little bit....' I didn't even have the chance to finish the statement. 'Don't even go there' was the growl that came from over my shoulder. Another fifteen minutes passed, and suddenly the path snaked alongside the peak instead of going up over it. Not only did it go to the side, but small trees had grown up to the point that we finally had a stretch of being in the shade. It was the first shade that we had encountered all day. Deb found a rock that leaned out onto the path, so she climbed and sat down. The shade gave us a good ten to fifteen-degree reprieve. As she sat there, I pulled an orange out of the backpack and peeled the skin off. I slowly pulled a slice of fruit off at a time. My teeth bit down on the tender fruit, releasing the sweet, tangy juice that was so refreshing at that moment. As she sat there, and I stood, we both chuckled and agreed that despite the crazy hike the day had turned into, at least we had brought plenty of water for a change. Having regained some of her energy and cooled down, Deb scooted off the rock, and we continued. Looking at the map and gauging the distance, it appeared that we had another hour and a half before we made it back to the dock.