Think about a challenge that you chose to undertake, whether it was academic, athletic or anything else. Perhaps it took a lot of planning or practice. Along the way, you may have had to get beyond something: stage fright, social anxiety, fear of failure, running out of time, not reaching the finish line. You may have had to work hard to stay focused and in the right mental space.
When it was over, how did you feel? Proud, disappointed, exhausted, triumphant — or something else? What did you learn about yourself?
In “22 Miles on Foot, 10 Minutes on a Tram: An ‘Extraordinary’ Day Hike,” Dina Mishev writes about hiking the Cactus to Clouds trail in California, which Backpacker magazine calls the fifth-hardest hike in America, and takes between 12 and 16 hours to complete. She begins:
The steep trail near the top of the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway was covered in inches of spongy fallen needles and peppered with ankle-twisting pine cones. It was also shady, which felt remarkable after the first seven miles of the grueling Cactus to Clouds hike offered little more than a brittlebush leaf’s worth of relief.
I had already hiked up 7,549 vertical feet and still had about 3,000 to go to the top of Mount San Jacinto, a granite crag towering just west of Palm Springs, Calif.
For this, my third Cactus to Clouds hike, I had chosen a mid-November day, and the conditions were perfect. The 22-mile hike slopes continuously, relentlessly uphill for its first 16 miles, rising from the desert floor to the 10,834-foot summit, then six miles and 2,400 vertical feet down to the top of the tram, culminating in a ride back down that’s well worth the $14 ticket.
I started my trek near the Palm Springs Art Museum at an elevation of 482 feet just after sunrise at 6:41 a.m., carrying enough water to last until the first water source, a ranger station at 8,400 feet, and I had packed several jackets to deal with the wild temperature swings from bottom to top.
People have a variety of reasons to attempt Cactus to Clouds: It’s one of the most biodiverse day hikes in the country. It’s an unusual wilderness experience on the edge of an urban area. But maybe above all, there’s the sheer audacity of the hike. In my previous ascents, each following a significant emotional or physical trauma — diagnosis of multiple sclerosis, divorce, completion of treatment for Stage 3 breast cancer — I was motivated by the idea that committing myself to this challenge would leave me with little energy to feel sorry for myself. And if I made it? Well, that was proof I could handle anything.
Students, read the entire article and then tell us:
Have you ever intentionally pursued a challenging feat? Was it something physical, like Ms. Mishev’s hike of Cactus to Clouds? Or was it something more intellectual or even emotional? Did anything in the article remind you of your own experience?
What motivated you to take on that challenge? Ms. Mishev says she attempted the hike to forget about her worries and prove she “could handle anything.” Do those ideas resonate with you?
In the end, what did you learn from that experience? Is it something you would try again? Why or why not?
Ms. Mishev writes later on in the article that pain in one of her feet convinced her to stop at the hike’s midpoint and complete the remainder the next day. Have you ever had to regroup or change direction while pursuing a goal? What happened? What did you gain or lose from doing so?
In general, are you someone who likes to challenge yourself and do difficult things? Or do you prefer an easier and gentler approach to life? Why?
Have you ever gone hiking? Would you want to hike Cactus to Clouds? Why or why not? What do you think you might enjoy about it? What would be hard?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.
