Hiking Buddies, Spiritual Journeys, and Great Stories

Two hikes in less than 12 hours. If this was a gym workout, I would be knocking on the door of burnout. Since we’re talking about hiking, it’s refreshing and uplifting.

People that hike are generally very friendly, kind hearted, and for the most part, they’ve all seemed at peace with the day. Trail runners, not so much, those folks are on some other drug cuz that just ain’t right 🙂 (I’m just jealous because I don’t see myself being able to run a trail in this lifetime, too many old injuries).

My hiking buddy today was one of those gentle, peaceful souls that you’d expect to hear on a self-help book, or rest and relaxation app. Steady voice, careful with her words, and generally focused in her direction of conversation (unlike me, I’m a ramblin’ machine). Great for hiking buddies. I can see myself keeping her distracted from her train of thought, and I can see her keeping me from stopping too long to take pictures of the same flower for 10 minutes. Regardless, it was a fun hike, and her son’s dog was absolutely wonderful. She’s headed to Spain in a few days, for a couple months to participate in a religious pilgrimage.

This hike was really nice. It is also a strange hike in that you literally start in a gravel pit, hike along a gravel access road for a mile or so, then slip into a trail that is through shaded forest, along a creek that’s pretty loud, and occasionally you’re graced with some really nice views of the surrounding hills and mountains. Indy and I hiked this over Labor Day Weekend. Nice hike, just hard enough to get you sweating a little, but nice enough you can hold a conversation.

Only took a few pictures this trip. Most aren’t very good, and the only one I like is the blue flowers (I can almost smell them when I see the picture).

Make friends, it’s part of the journey that I haven’t worked on very hard (ever), today was part of that step, make friends. ~me