I'm stubborn. Just ask my parents. I really hate to give up on things. I read books all the way through even I don't like them. I eat all the leftovers in my fridge (but that's also because I'm cheap and hate to see food go to waste... but that's another story), I always finish a workout no matter how much it hurts. So hiking the Rideau Trail end to end was the perfect project for me. ...and then life got in the way.
I'm moving 4,300 km across the country in 8 weeks which means that my life is a bit busy right now and so I had to call it quits for hiking the Rideau Trail. This was very hard for me to do and I felt like I was letting Rolla down. But she totally understood and supported my decision. This is why we have been friends since for 14 years (oh my goodness, has it been that long?!).
Right as I decided to quite the Rideau Trail I happened to be reading Bill Bryson's book "A Walk in the Woods" about his time hiking the Appalachian trail **Spoiler Alert ** in the end he decides to quite the trail before the end because there are other things in life that are more important. Phew, at least I'm not the only one to quit. It's funny how our hiking the Rideau Trail has been book-ended by, well, books. "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed started this crazy idea and "A Walk in the Woods" helped me to come to terms with finishing it.
So this past Sunday instead of driving south of Ottawa and doing a complex car shuffle, I picked Rolla up early in the morning to avoid the heat (somehow it's July temperatures in September!) and we hiked a loop in Gatineau Park. It was lovely. There was a trail. It was well marked. It wasn't overgrown. We wore shorts. It only took 30 minutes to drive there. We only took one vehicle. But we did see more people on our first 5 minutes on the trail than we did during our entire 173 km on the Rideau Trail. Thankfully the crowds cleared out and we pretty much had the trail to ourselves after that.
We walked through the forest and enjoyed the views from a lovely bench. We enjoyed our shinrin-yoku (Japanese for "forest bath:). I read an article a few years back on how in Japan there is the concept of how going out into the forest for a walk has many health benefits, especially regarding improving mental health (combatting depression and promoting relaxation). In the end, I think this is one of the reasons why I love hiking so much. So the fact that we were still able to get out for a short and less strenuous hike was great and I really enjoyed it. I hope to be able to do more of the same in the coming weeks.
We figure that some day, we will finish the Rideau Trail. We were just getting to what is supposed to be the good part. But really, there's no need to rush, because there's much more to life than to finishing a trail. However, the stubborn side of me is much more pleased to think of our hiking being put on hiatus - to be continued sometime - rather than outright quitting an adventure.
Happy trails!
I'm moving 4,300 km across the country in 8 weeks which means that my life is a bit busy right now and so I had to call it quits for hiking the Rideau Trail. This was very hard for me to do and I felt like I was letting Rolla down. But she totally understood and supported my decision. This is why we have been friends since for 14 years (oh my goodness, has it been that long?!).
Right as I decided to quite the Rideau Trail I happened to be reading Bill Bryson's book "A Walk in the Woods" about his time hiking the Appalachian trail **Spoiler Alert ** in the end he decides to quite the trail before the end because there are other things in life that are more important. Phew, at least I'm not the only one to quit. It's funny how our hiking the Rideau Trail has been book-ended by, well, books. "Wild" by Cheryl Strayed started this crazy idea and "A Walk in the Woods" helped me to come to terms with finishing it.
So this past Sunday instead of driving south of Ottawa and doing a complex car shuffle, I picked Rolla up early in the morning to avoid the heat (somehow it's July temperatures in September!) and we hiked a loop in Gatineau Park. It was lovely. There was a trail. It was well marked. It wasn't overgrown. We wore shorts. It only took 30 minutes to drive there. We only took one vehicle. But we did see more people on our first 5 minutes on the trail than we did during our entire 173 km on the Rideau Trail. Thankfully the crowds cleared out and we pretty much had the trail to ourselves after that.
 |
| A lovely trail. It was like this the whole way :-) |
We walked through the forest and enjoyed the views from a lovely bench. We enjoyed our shinrin-yoku (Japanese for "forest bath:). I read an article a few years back on how in Japan there is the concept of how going out into the forest for a walk has many health benefits, especially regarding improving mental health (combatting depression and promoting relaxation). In the end, I think this is one of the reasons why I love hiking so much. So the fact that we were still able to get out for a short and less strenuous hike was great and I really enjoyed it. I hope to be able to do more of the same in the coming weeks.
We figure that some day, we will finish the Rideau Trail. We were just getting to what is supposed to be the good part. But really, there's no need to rush, because there's much more to life than to finishing a trail. However, the stubborn side of me is much more pleased to think of our hiking being put on hiatus - to be continued sometime - rather than outright quitting an adventure.
Happy trails!
No comments:
Post a Comment