Ｆrom the Glen Lake picnic site, we could see the Sleeping Bear Dune – the main reason for our trip out to the Sleeping Bear National Lakeshore. It is so high up that all the people climbing up the dune looks like 'or hia' walking around. The dune is just basically a 'suar eh sua' but because it is so bare, it feels exciting to climb it. You have this entire hill of sand right in front of you and it is all yours to climb.
View of Glen Lake from the peak of the 1st Dune climb
Unlike hill trails, running up a dune trail is definitely harder and uses a lot of your calf and hamstring muscle. It is easier if you can find a spot where someone else had stepped on because it makes the sand firm. If it has been a while since it was stepped on and the wind had blow the sand even, then it is much harder because climbing one step is actually climbing half a step as your feet sink into the sand.
The entire trail is about 3-4 hours. It takes you to the beach of Lake Michigan and back through the same route. There are green patches of grass here and there but the trail itself is all sand. Sometimes we feel like we're lost in a desert and yet, the intensity of the wind is pretty strong that sometimes you feel cold.
While the dune may not seem super interesting, Ping actually learned a lot from the climb.
- The excitement when one enters a new path in life.
When we arrived at the Dune, we were all very excited to climb up to the first top peak. When you see little kids rolling down the hill, you want to get up there so that you can roll down too (of course we didn't do that lah, that'll be too much sand getting into weird places). But thinking back to when Ping first came to the States, when Ping first stated her graduate school, everything is exciting. Something as simple as a perfect gel electrophoresis picture makes your day. Now, it has to be more than that to feel the satisfaction.
- Curiosity keeps us going.
When we arrive at the peak of that first Dune, we look ahead and we see another dune. After climbing another, yet another dune appears in front of us. It was the curiosity that had us kept walking forward. Similarly in life, we see people around us and they make us think about what we could do if only we know how to do so and so. It makes us want to pursue it. Hence, it is the curiosities that initiate us take that step forward again and again.
- Influence
Along the hike, we met a couple whom Lin asked what is at the end of the trail. The guy told us: Hell. Don't go there. Upon hearing that, we thought we were headed the wrong way and turned towards another direction. After a while, we realized that there is no sign of footsteps along that route. So we turned back and clearly, that was the wrong direction. We were supposed to follow the wooden sticks with blue colored top. Throughout our journey of life, we meet people who can negatively influence us. Sometimes we decided to listen to the wrong people that divert us from our main goal, making our journey complicated. BUT! If we realize that we are going the wrong way, it is never too late to turn back. Eventually, we'll find our own way to achieve our goal, not getting influenced by negativity.
Further along the hike, we also met a bunch of guys who told us "You only have 2 more dunes to go!". It may just be a simple sentence exchanged between strangers but sometimes, it is this small motivation that brings our spirit up again. Around us, there will always be someone or even something that encourage us to keep moving forward, heading towards our goal, it just depends on if we see it or not. Whenever Ping feels like just quitting and go back home, there is always something stronger that prevents it from happening. Even the fact that someone has reached a similar goal can be encouraging – if they have done it, why can't I? Maybe I can do even better.
- The goal might not be the way we imagine it to be.
We have no idea what the end is like. We know it is Lake Michigan and that is where we want to go. In the end, all we get is a stony beach with 4 other people. So why isn't there anyone else? There really is not that many people travelling along with us to begin with but Ping never did expect to see so little people at the end of it. When we start on a new journey, we know what we want but really, we don't know how it will be like when we reached our destination. The traditional view is that you study hard, get a degree and then get a good job. But what is a good job? Is there really such thing as a good job? We have no idea. Do we really know how we feel once we get that job? Not really. At least not until we get there. It might be totally different from what we have in our mind.
At the end of the trail, the view is pretty, but at the same time scary. The waves comes in really strong and you feel like any second any minute (haha..how to translate 每一鍾每一秒?), the waves will just swipe you away. It is not a very enjoyable beach either because it is stony instead of sandy. It hurts to walk around and again, scary because it is hard to grip on to the slippery stones. Even so, Lin and Ping went into the water and got a dip since we felt dehydrated. Oh yeah – definitely bring TONS and TONS of water when climbing the dunes.
- Treasure every moment.
The walk back started out harder than the walk towards the lake. That is pretty normal since going back is always tiring. But at the same time, we also couldn't wait to get back to the campsite to shower and lie down on our backs to rest our legs, away from the heat. While we are enjoying going downhill, we look forward and we see another dune that we have to climb – aiyohhhhhh. Going uphill is like the down moments in life while going downhill is the up moments in life. In life, it is not as clear because we don't see the next hurdle in front of us. In fact, we don't even really enjoy the up moments because there is always an 'if only', we'll be thinking, wah, na si wa u chi keng bungalow…or stuff like that. So Ping and Lin was telling ourselves, we should not look at the next dune and go aiyohhhhhh, instead, we should be having fun going down the dune.
Lake Michigan at the end of the Dune trail.Overall, it was a fun and inspiring climb. It made Ping think about all the experience in life and reanalyze Ping's view of life in general. Would Ping recommend people to climb the Dune to enjoy what lies at the end of the trail? Nope. It is just a beach. Not the most fun beach either. But for the experience of climbing a dune, Yup, definitely! Just bring lots of water and be prepared for a 3 hours of climbing session.
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