I’m not exactly sure when I fell in love with hiking. Certainly I’ve been doing it off and on since I was a kid, but that doesn’t mean I always liked it. I remember being younger and lugging my body up some hill and just desperately hoping it would be over soon. Somewhere along the way it changed from a chore to a luxury. Something I try my best to do at least a couple times a week, and something that my vacations are based around.

My husband, then boyfriend, was the one who really reintroduced me back to the outdoors. Three months into our relationship he took me on my very first camping trip. No campsite, no electricity, no running water, no cell service. Just a a decrepit old house in the middle of the woods where he and his friends had gone for years. (Oh did I mention that all his friends who I had yet to meet would be there) Now this could have ended in some serious disaster, but fortunately, his friends were amazing, the place was gorgeous, and I guess I sorta really liked the guy. On this trip,  and on many visits thereafter,we hiked though the woods, though fields, though humungous patches of blueberry bushes which all finally took us to a private waterfall.  I hadn’t really hiked in years, but it was definitely the slow start to a love story, well two love stories, I mean I did marry the guy!

One of the things I like best about being out on the trail is the sense of community. It’s common polite practice to say hello to everyone you pass by. How nice it that? It’s kinda funny that the normally somewhat rude catch phrase, Take a Hike, is adopted as a tongue in cheek motivational saying. I have included it in my collection of outdoorsy inspiration magnets, and it’s one of my best sellers!

Take a Hike!