The Hike

This past weekend, we hiked a mountain.  According to my probably inaccurate online research, the mountain's elevation is about 1800 feet, and the vertical climb from where we parked was a little under 1000 feet.  If you're a hiking novice like me, the statistics which will mean more to you are that it took about an hour to hike up with 5 adults, my 9 year old and my 5 year old nephew.  The children set a rapid pace, taking their responsibility of finding the next trail markers very seriously.

After a bagel breakfast (a rare treat for her), my daughter's blood sugar was about 250.  I resisted correcting, and up the hill we headed.  Halfway up she was down to 150.  At the top, she was 90.  We enjoyed the beautiful vistas, and grazed on the tiny blueberries we discovered at the top.  We even managed to pick enough to bring back for pancakes the next morning. Those and a small granola bar fueled her up for the trip down.

We made it up and down the mountain with an end result around 150, which continued to drop as the afternoon wore on. 

Of course I think my poor husband, the self-nominated backpack carrier, was secretly hoping for a low somewhere along the line.  Prepared for any eventuality, we had what by any standards would be considered an excessive amount of juice boxes, glucose tabs and snacks on hand. 

On the one hand, it's sort of a non-story, diabetes-wise.  We hiked up, enjoyed the top, and hiked back down without incident.  On the other hand, we had to plan ahead with a hearty breakfast, pack like we were camping for days instead of taking a 3 hour hike, and regularly scout out flat rocks upon which to occasionally stop and check.  Prior planning and a little bit of divine intervention both need to come together to make a day like this one a diabetes success.