HAPPY TRAILS

28 Nov

Your blog calls to mind a similar question my wife asked me the summer after we were married in 1991 and on her first and only backpack trip. We were panting up the switchbacks on the Ten Lakes Trail in Yosemite (we were married in the valley chapel the previous Fall). She asked: “And you call this fun?”

I responded (and I’m sure it’s accurate because I heard her repeat it over the years): “Fun? Who said anything about fun?”

I stand behind those sentiments. Fun is transitory gratification achieved with little effort. That is not backpacking. Backpacking is effort punctuated by rewards, anticipated and otherwise. The anticipated reward of a great view may be obscured in clouds, but the internal dialogue while ascending in the fog may reach conclusions that will reward in the future.

I must say I am surprised by my experience as a senior backpacker. I always assumed I’d have to quit by now, lending a sense of urgency to my my younger trips, but lightweight technology has added a few years to my hiking life. That and age hasn’t been the handicap I anticipated. Clearly I’ve lost speed, but stamina is not so bad, and I’m no longer as much under time pressure. {I would be remiss here if I did not sing the praises of the great god Motrin, without whose anti-inflammatory aid none of this would be possible}, Amen.

Happy Trails,

Ron

FOOT NOTE: We were lucky enough to meet up with Ron on the JMT at Cathedral Lakes