Part of my recent trip involved a lot of hiking. In terms of exercise, hiking is about as good as it gets. I run a lot, up to 15 miles a week on a good week. Do I like it? Hell no. It sucks. It helps relieve stress and keeps my pants fitting. Trust me, if I had a human temper or was an ectomorph, my ass would never run. EVER.
The first one we hiked was right before sunset. There was a warning that the trails could lead off the main path for miles and I watched the sun sinking in the sky. We couldn’t find the main trail and at that moment, standing in a gorge’s dead end, I realized every “I Shouldn’t Be Alive” episode started like this. I began examining which part of my girlfriend I would have to eat to survive when we finally found our out. Shut up voices in my head!
Day two was hot and we got off to a bad start because every idiot in the tri-state decided to go to the main trail at Old Man’s Cave. Why do people bring one year olds hiking? Seriously. While I’m thinking about it, it works the other way too. I’m sure Grandpa likes nature, but if you’re 85…you might want to give it a rest on the downhill dirt trail. Thankfully, we went to another trail with less people and a better view. It looked a lot like the movie “Last of the Mohicans” so I was able to hike imagining I was running through the hills killing enemy soldiers with a tomahawk. Ah, positive thoughts. I should hike more often.