It's a little over a mile hike up to the Marbleyard. If you're in reasonably good shape, the hike is not bad at all. Once you get to the Marbleyard, however, it's no longer a hike. It's a "scramble" up the boulders. However, "scramble" is a relative term. For someone like me, who doesn't like climbing or unsure footing, this was a real test of my limits.
My daughter has always been a climber and just bloop, bloop, bloop, scampered up the rocks. She had to keep waiting for me. I probably looked like a strange creature as I slowly, methodically crawled/hauled myself up, using my arms and legs and sometimes even my rear end. Once I caught up to my daughter, off she'd go again, often on just two legs.
After a good 30-45 minutes (I'm guessing) of climbing, I realized my arms were starting to ache a bit. Since I have a concert in a month and I've just recovered from a stress fracture and tendinitis, I knew I had reached my limit. However, my daughter was doing great and I knew she wanted to get to the top for the breathtaking view.
It was hard to let my 15-year-old daughter continue to climb on her own, but I did. She was out of my sight for quite a while, but she texted me from time to time to let me know she was fine. There were a few other climbers there, so it was good to know she wasn't alone up there. Plus, I figured at her age, she is probably just as capable as I am - or even more so - of taking care of herself. She knew to choose her route carefully and to keep an eye out for snakes.
Everyone's got their limits.
My grandmother would never have even taken my mother to the Marbleyard. In my mind, I could hear her saying to me, "Have you got brains????"
My mother would have hiked to the Marbleyard with me, but I doubt would have ever scrambled up the boulders. And I *really* doubt she would have let me go on alone, especially in the pre-digital age.
I continued to push our family's limits by taking my daughter there and going as far as I could. I recognized my own limit but allowed my daughter to find hers. I am really proud that she made it to the top. That girl's got real potential to do anything she wants, and I can't wait to see where life takes her.
May we all continue to explore our limits and reach our full potential!
Here's a few pictures. The first one is where I stopped about a third of the way up. If you look carefully, you can see my daughter a little above the center of the picture, wearing a blue shirt.
Here's the selfie she took from the top.
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