By Gypsie-Ami Offenbacher-Ferris

The chamber was not far away, but seemed an eternity away as we walked the rugged path to where it sat on sacred ground, deep in the evergreen forest. My feet ached, were cut and bleeding but I closed my mind to the sensations that were not useful to me at the moment, and walked on fiercely serene with humility and reverence for those who had gone before me. This was the ultimate test.

Seven days without food or water. The days temperatures could reach one hundred and ten degrees Fahrenheit and the night temperatures dropped severely due to the high mountain range that surrounded us.

There were no blankets to use at all, no toilet and no water. Others have gone before me and made it. Others had not.