A Dusty 10
Matt and I have two parallel goals right now. I'm still plugging away at the hike a week plan and Matt is training to run for distance.
This weekend was completely gorgeous here in the PNW. The sun was shining, there was a slight breeze and our family didn't have any obligations. We had nothing on the calendar for the entire weekend!!
Despite the perfect weekend forecast, I found myself in a really grumpy mood on Friday night. I did a quick self-assessment to figure out why I was feeling down and came up with one thing - my hike. I love hiking and I am excited that a lot of the trails that were previously closed due to weather are now be open, so it wasn't that I didn't want to hike, it was the fact that I didn't want to hike alone. Hiking alone is fine, I have become used to it, but I just didn't want to hike alone on this particular weekend. Matt was planning a 10 mile run on Saturday so hiking was out for him and the kids loathe hiking with me, so they were out. What to do?
I could find a hiking group or phone a friend who has asked about hiking together, but I just wasn't feeling it. So, I decided to bend my rules a little.
A few weeks ago as I was searching for the weekend hike I took a moment to really define "hike". What does that mean? Is there a minimum distance? A minimum gain? What are my parameters for calling something a hike? Before I could answer these questions, I had to back up a to the beginning. Why am I doing this? My goals for this hiking challenge were mainly about getting out and discovering the nature that surrounds me. So for the purposes of this hiking challenge, I have defined a hike as a journey in a natural space that I have not yet explored. I do want to continue to challenge myself with greater distances and higher heights but I don't have to reach a summit or spend 10 hours on a trail to qualify as a hike.
As I sat there grumbling to myself about this hiking alone thing, I decided to find a way to let my goal intersect with Matt's this weekend, even if it means bending my rules a little. I found a flat pressed gravel trail in Kirkland that covered the 10 miles Matt needed for his weekend run and due to the fact that it is surrounded by trees and not paved I decided I'd call it a "trail" and I'd join him.
His run and my hike converged on a dusty trail. I planned to kind of run and walk the 10 miles and justify it as a hike, but somehow I started running and just kept going. My shoes were dusty, my face was burned, my calves were wondering what in the world hit them. Instead of feeling sad that I was
hiking alone, or feeling bad that I didn't actually "hike" I let myself be ok with this version of a trail run/hike. I'm still logging it as a hike. I discovered a new semi-natural area and I traveled by foot, and in the end the feeling of doing this with Matt was better than any other more legitimate hike I could have done alone.
This weekend was completely gorgeous here in the PNW. The sun was shining, there was a slight breeze and our family didn't have any obligations. We had nothing on the calendar for the entire weekend!!
Despite the perfect weekend forecast, I found myself in a really grumpy mood on Friday night. I did a quick self-assessment to figure out why I was feeling down and came up with one thing - my hike. I love hiking and I am excited that a lot of the trails that were previously closed due to weather are now be open, so it wasn't that I didn't want to hike, it was the fact that I didn't want to hike alone. Hiking alone is fine, I have become used to it, but I just didn't want to hike alone on this particular weekend. Matt was planning a 10 mile run on Saturday so hiking was out for him and the kids loathe hiking with me, so they were out. What to do?
I could find a hiking group or phone a friend who has asked about hiking together, but I just wasn't feeling it. So, I decided to bend my rules a little.
A few weeks ago as I was searching for the weekend hike I took a moment to really define "hike". What does that mean? Is there a minimum distance? A minimum gain? What are my parameters for calling something a hike? Before I could answer these questions, I had to back up a to the beginning. Why am I doing this? My goals for this hiking challenge were mainly about getting out and discovering the nature that surrounds me. So for the purposes of this hiking challenge, I have defined a hike as a journey in a natural space that I have not yet explored. I do want to continue to challenge myself with greater distances and higher heights but I don't have to reach a summit or spend 10 hours on a trail to qualify as a hike.
As I sat there grumbling to myself about this hiking alone thing, I decided to find a way to let my goal intersect with Matt's this weekend, even if it means bending my rules a little. I found a flat pressed gravel trail in Kirkland that covered the 10 miles Matt needed for his weekend run and due to the fact that it is surrounded by trees and not paved I decided I'd call it a "trail" and I'd join him.
His run and my hike converged on a dusty trail. I planned to kind of run and walk the 10 miles and justify it as a hike, but somehow I started running and just kept going. My shoes were dusty, my face was burned, my calves were wondering what in the world hit them. Instead of feeling sad that I was
hiking alone, or feeling bad that I didn't actually "hike" I let myself be ok with this version of a trail run/hike. I'm still logging it as a hike. I discovered a new semi-natural area and I traveled by foot, and in the end the feeling of doing this with Matt was better than any other more legitimate hike I could have done alone.
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