As I made my first step on the terrain, I tried to steel myself for how hard the coming hours would be. With each heavy step, the pain grew a little more, yet my determination to finish outpaced its growth. Carrying the 17 foot crimson wooden Chesnut canoe overhead, I felt a burning sensation radiating down my neck and spine, with my heart pumping furiously and sweat dripping out of every pore in my body. Every muscle in my body throbbed with pain, and despite taking one step after another, the mountain seemed never ending and out of reach.  I worried that I had wrecked my body, that it would never be the same, and knowing that I still had kilometers of land left to cover chewed at my morale.  I could not, would not, quit, but it felt like spears were being shot through my body from below while the weight of the boat was crushing down on my head from above. Despite that, I did not quit.

The experience of portaging the Gamble was a supreme challenge; I had never felt such immense pain and physical exhaustion before. But I learned that even though I hated the pain in the moment, the experience of having achieved it is one I would readily do again. Successfully completing the Gamble required a new level of physical and mental endurance from me, and now I can look back and feel proud that I persevered. This experience has also taught me to deal with challenges as they come, to not be blindsided by them, and to understand that they are opportunities to grow and learn from 

I left some of my boyhood when I walked out of the gamble. So what experiences changed you the most?