Tanalian Mountain

June 20: Thursdays often find me gasping and wheezing my way to the top of Tanalian Mountain along with some of our veterans and their spouses. I have to be honest with you, hiking to the summit of a 4,000 foot mountain every week was not on my personal PT list. But, when you see a veteran with a prosthetic summit the mountain, you swallow your lame excuses (along with a half dozen ibuprofen), lace up your boots, and go. 

In the photo, the point of the ridge acts like an arrow pointing to Samaritan Lodge Alaska and the community of Port Alsworth. The two parallel strips of gray in the dead center of the photo are the dual (and dueling) airstrips. Peninsula & Lake Air owns the runway on the left and Lake Clark Air owns the runway on the right. Lake Clark Air has the coolest ball caps and the dustiest runway. Samaritan Lodge Alaska sits smack dab in the middle of the two runways on the bay side of Lake Clark. 

The rounded brown hump of land to the left of the ridge is an alpine meadow called "the Knee" where we rest, eat our lunch and pray fervently for the tenacity to reach the top. The climb is six miles up and six down. Imagine being chained to a Stairmaster for eight hours while watching National Geographic and you'll have some idea of how I spend my Thursdays. 

Only, I'm chained to truly remarkable people. Last week one of the injured vets made it to the summit; and down below in the Bunker at Samaritan Lodge, his wife watched through a high powered scope in growing wonder and astonishment. When she saw his red shirt appear at the tip-top of the mountain, she yelled, "That's my man!" 

Lacing up my boots on Thursdays isn't always easy, but I wouldn't trade my job for all the easy chairs and blister-free feet in the world.