Walk in the woods

My wife and I hike together almost every weekend. It’s something we’ve done together ever since we met about 30 years ago. At this point we must have logged thousands of miles walking up and down mountains. Our idea of a vacation is going someplace new and basically walking around.

Out on the trails around here, it’s amazing how you can hike for hours and not come across a single person. Even when the parking lot is busy, you’ll only cross paths with a handful of other hikers. Not that I don’t want to see other people. But it’s nice to have some time away from them once in a while.

I like how every hike is different. We’ve hiked in all kinds of weather of course, but other things change too. Slowly over time you see the forest change. Trees fall. Mushrooms grow. Thousands of toads cross the trail every year in August. We see the occasional bear. You also see different people every time. Sometimes nobody, sometimes friends.

And of course we change. Some days we’re happy, sometimes we’re grumpy. We may talk the entire time, or barely say a word to each other. Often we have aches and pains to complain about. More so as we get older. But at the end of the hike, it seems, we’re always in a better mood than when we started. With sore hips or feet, sometimes drenched, we get back to the car, thank each other for the hike, and head home.