A Story About Hiking.
My love for hiking began about the time I learned to walk. I loved being outdoors and always felt like I was my happiest and at peace in nature. As I grew up I started scouring AllTrials to see what was available to me and where I could go next. I loved hiking so much that in high school I gave myself the the nickname "The Hiking Queen", and would bring my sister and my friends on adventure walks through nature.
A few years later in the year 2018, my best friend invited me to come out to Alberta to go for a hike. He had grown up out west and was also bringing his two friends from Switzerland, to hike with as well. It was clear to me these guys knew what they were doing, and I wanted an adventure...so I said yes! When we arrived at the trail head I looked up to see a 7,000 ft mountain. This gave me both a rush of excited and a moment of panic because the elevation gain was probably the equivalent to all the hikes I had done total. Even so, the fear was a good thing and helped me start off on this hike with an excellent attitude.
Throughout the hike I really enjoyed myself and it was a totally new experience for me. I felt like I learned so much about the differences between hiking in Ontario and hiking in Alberta. Once we were getting close to the top I got a sneak peak of the view they were all warning me about. My excitement grew and I was pushing harder and faster.
When we did reach the summit, I was so absolutely stoked and so proud of myself. My first summit of a mountain and I felt great! As my hiking hobby grew, so did my friend group in Alberta. Before I knew it I was flying out for day hikes and reaching the top of mountains, a whole new addition to my hiking hobby.
Flash forward to summer 2021, living in Canmore Alberta surrounded by mountains. I felt like quite possibly the luckiest girl on earth.
Throughout the 2020 and 2021 lockdowns I was feeling like most of us I think, a little less motivated and a little less fit. But here I found myself staying in the mountains surrounded by hiking trails. So once again I set off to summit a mountain, I did it..but it did not feel the same. I struggled to keep up and I was lacking the whole point of this adventure, to have fun. This messed with my head and I told myself I was not ready to hike and needed to do some more training before I could summit again.
This was a great realization to come to, as I needed to make sure I was taking care of my body and not pushing myself to hard. Although, I began to develop a bit of a false assumption about hiking. This assumption was that, when you hike a mountain you make it to the summit, simple but incorrect. Now this was not the fault of my friends or myself really, this is what we happen to accomplish each time we went hiking.
For anyone who is new to hiking, I would like to share something with you. If you search for the definition of a hike the explanation over multiple platforms is "walking in the wilderness". Nowhere over the internet or hiking community are there these parameters I had conjured up in my mind.
After a few weeks of saying "I wasn't feeling like hiking" or "I wasn't ready" my best friend (now boyfriend) asked me if I didn't like hiking anymore. This shook me as a girl who was once the hiking queen and I quickly replied with "No I just don't think I can summit". As a look of confusion came over my boyfriends face he said "You don't need to be summiting a mountain to go for a hike." It was at this point my whole illusion of hiking in the mountains was shattered. I felt like a weight came off my shoulders and started to remember how I got started hiking. I started by hiking on paths on level ground in Ontario. Why had I changed the rules because I was hiking in Alberta?
At this point in the present day I have come up with a new perspective on hiking. You go outside in the woods and you follow a path and you see what you find. If you are up for a challenge you climb higher and push harder. The most important part of this new perspective is that if you get half way up the mountain and the conditions are rough or your body is telling you no, it is quite alright to turn around. I know I am not a failure and go back down feeling accomplished at what I did today. I don't know about you but nobody has ever said to me "oh you only hiked up half a mountain, that's lame."
There are no rules or boundaries on what makes a hobby. A hobby is something that you do regularly that brings you joy and increases your energy, and the best part is you decide how that happens. You can wake up one morning and decide you are going to try roller blading or skiing or painting. If by the end of the day, week to month you are not exceptional this does not mean you failed at your hobby. If every time you put on your hikers and go outside you feel your happiest and at peace, you are the Queen of Hiking.
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