Mt Sinai

Today, we hiked up Mt Sinai. For those who know neither their bible nor Hollywood blockbusters, Mt Sinai is the birthplace of the Ten Commandments. Once you arrive, the point is to walk to the top. You can either take the 3000 steps to the top (called the Steps of Repentance) or take the easier hike of 6K. My Intrepid group decided to take the stairs. It’s brutal but shorter and somehow, that makes it sound easier.

Wow, are we a bunch of idiots.

Call me crazy, but 3000 stairs sounds “doable” when first heard. Or at least believable The trick is to break it down. I figure it take ten stairs between floor of a building and so a ten story building is 100 stairs. Just do that 30 times. Easy!

Oh. My. God. I’ve never done anything so hard in my life. We hike UPWARDS for 3 hours! Every muscle in my legs hurt, my knees ache and about midway on the last 700 stairs, I simply lost all energy. The general consensus was that Moses was hallucinating from altitude, fatigue and lack of water and so of course he saw an angel . My God, I was seeing things!

Still, we persevered. After all, it’s called the Steps of Repentance and not the Steps of Anyone Can Do This so Please Come On Up.

We all got to the top (some much earlier than others) and it was worth it. The view was barren and wild and spectacular. Not much of a sunset due to haze but frankly I didn’t do the walk to see the sunset. Much like any mountain, I did it because it was there.