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Precipice

Iron Rungs Precipice

Many of the iron rungs on today’s Precipice trail are original to the 1920s trailwork. (Image courtesy of U.S. National Park Service)

One day during summer vacation my family and I went to Acadia National Park. When we were there, we decided to go on a bunch of hikes but when we decided to do Precipice, we did not know that it was the seventh most dangerous hike in the world! There were no signs at the bottom that said “Warning!” or “Danger!” so we thought it was safe.

The hike was fun in the beginning but then as we finished about 1/8 of the hike, it started not being as fun. There were always more and more ladders; it always looked like you were done though there was always more. Then I asked my dad if I could please have some water, but he said “sorry I didn’t think we needed any.” I then heard some kids yelling about how much fun they were having and drinking Red Bull and I kept thinking “just wait until you plummet to your death.”

We kept climbing at least 100 ladders. Those kids on Red Bull 24/7 were ahead of us now, and you could still hear them yelling about how fun it was while we were scaling a one-inch thin ridge, and I was reciting the Lord's Prayer while my older sister was crying. After the ridge there was a hole in the trail about twenty feet deep and there were handles built into the mountain and a bunch of leaves at the bottom. Those Red Bull kids were zooming now, they were completely sprinting! They were chugging Red Bulls gulping it down like they needed it. Meanwhile I did not have a drop of water.

I heard another person on the hike say, “We are very close.” Though the top was still at least 4 miles away! There were EVEN MORE LADDERS, they were rustier too probably because nobody has ever made it this far to fix them. There were people turning back and going back down. Some were very unprepared because they were wearing sandals and crocs. It was flatter now which probably meant we were getting to the top, but we weren't. Rock pebbles fell every time you took a wrong step, those kids were still chugging Red Bulls and it seemed like they were training to do the Palmilhar Portugal. The heat was squelching down. It felt like the Emirates. It felt like the sun was an oven and everywhere you looked there was a heat wave. My face was melting.

It was enough to make someone go crazy. But then it started to look like we were actually closer to the top…….it was the TOP!!!!!!!!!!! There was a pond at the top. I was begging my dad “please let me drink.” But he said no. I watched those Red Bull kids eat snacks while I starved. The sad part was we had to go back down. Luckily, we could go down a different way and my parents promised me a stuffed animal, a Swiss Army knife, the new Apple headphones for Christmas and a ton of water once we got down.

In conclusion, I have decided the hike will be a good way to torture my future children.

P.S Those Apple headphones are really good for tuning out annoying siblings.

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