To read part five of day twelve, click here.

Well, Luke was right. After I tried to calm down and focused on my breathing, slowly it got better. I was able to stop the tears, and I started to get enough oxygen again.

“Are you ready, Brett?”

I looked over at Luke as he stood up and held out a hand.

“Ready? Nope. But I’ll never be ready, so we might as well go now.”

I grabbed the hand he offered and with his help got to my feet. I let go as soon as I saw the look of pain on his face. I couldn’t believe I’d forgotten that he was hurt and I’d let him help me up.

“How’s your back?”

He grimaced as he adjusted his pack.

“It’s not doing too well. But it’s the best it’s going to be right now, so let’s go.”

The trail just kept going up, and up, and up. It seemed like it would never end. No matter how far I could see, there was always more trail.

Behind me, I could hear my crewmates grumbling every time we had to take a break. Part of me knew that they needed the breaks too, that they were just complaining because it was so difficult. But I was still really upset that they were complaining. A lot of it was coming from one or two of my crewmates, and I knew they didn’t really mean it when they were complaining about the breaks. But it still hurt.

As I was climbing up that hill, I saw a little level spot up ahead. I couldn’t believe it! Was it going to stay level for a little bit? It looked like the spot was big enough for us to all sit on level ground for a minute.

I decided that I was going to make it to the level spot without taking another break. Twenty seconds later, I found myself sitting down, unable to breathe again. So much for not taking a break!

Click here to read the next part of Day Twelve.

*Everything here is from my own memory and may not be correct. Outward Bound is not responsible for anything I post here. Thanks too NCOBS for letting me use their photos.*