This hiking trip is going to be fun! Well… fun might not be the best way to describe it. My vocabulary has suffered significantly as of late, monosyllabic words are all I’ve got left. The truth is that our trip will be fun, but it’s also complicated.
On the surface, a 10 day hiking trip with two amazing people, celebrating your 10 year wedding anniversary, is nothing short of epic. If you know us, our dreams and aspirations, you don’t have to dig down too many layers to see that this isn’t just a “fun” trip, this is a test. Everything we have done over the past three years has been preparing for the ultimate goal of hiking the Pacific Crest Trail, Continental Divide Trail, Appalachian Trail, and all the trails we haven’t even considered yet. Selling the house, buying the gear, working the horse, it’s all been for a reason.
Underneath the tectonic plates of fun is an enormous amount of pressure. A pressure to do well and enjoy the time. It might sound silly but this kind of pressure can influence decisions and put you into difficult situations that would not otherwise be possible. Quitting the trail for any reason could be foreboding, foreshadowing… even when it’s nothing.
So it’s fun and it’s a test and it’s sorta scary. Luckily, I like tests. Everything is going to be fine.
Day 0 has us up near Cadillac in an AirBnB that Shauna booked. Rick is going to drop the three of us off at the Hodenpyl Trail head in the morning!
In case you haven’t picked up on it yet, I’m planning to try and write every day of the hiking trip. It should be… fun 🙂