Why Hike?

I first fell in love with backpacking when I was eight years old. I was with my girl scout troop and we hiked the at for a week. It was everything. It was then that I decided I wanted to do a thru trek.

Fast forward eighteen years. I had moved to Israel, enlisted as a combat soldier, graduated from university, met the love of my life, moved back stateside and adopted two puppies. I still hiked regularly. Every summer since I was born I’ve spent time in Acadia and would climb. Movement was my meditation. But somehow, in the way life does, life got in the way and my passions got waysided. 

This year I decided I wasn’t going to let life get in the way. I dug out my backpack. The one I’ve had since I was 13 when I did my first month long backpacking trip. The one with the hole in the bottom, that had traveled with me across the world and back and I told my husband I was going to do a hike.

In a couple weekends I had completed my first solo backpacking trip of the laurel highlands hiking trail, along with my two dogs Sadie and Kimbo. I remembered what I had loved about backpacking and felt sad that I had given up on something so important to me. Jeremy my husband was a good sport and helped me coordinate transportation to and from the trail. And by the end of it I was beginning to dream bigger.

I keep thinking to myself ‘if not now, when’? I can’t wait to head out with Kimbo and Sadie on this adventure of a life time and to find my home again in the woods.