THE HIKING CYCLE: THREE REPEATING STEPS

Hiking is more than hiking. It's a process involving three key repeating steps:

The Hiking Cycle

1. Planning

2. Hiking

3. Reminiscing

followed by planning, hiking, and reminiscing, etc. an endless source of fulfillment and enjoyment.

I remember in my early hiking days after a long backpack weekend, of driving home tired and bone deep sore, thinking that I wouldn't want to repeat that trip again. After a day, my mind, which was not tired, would be active, thinking about what I had just done, and planning the next hike. The aching body would just need a few days to catch up with my aspirations.

My last day hike was over 4 months ago in early December 2021. Shortly after, I was scheduled for back surgery in January. That was postponed for six weeks because of a Covid Omicron variant surge in Connecticut and lack of surgical support staff at the hospital. My new surgery date was late February, the day after my eighty-fourth birthday. That surgery was followed four weeks later by emergency surgery in mid-March. This week will mark 6 weeks post-surgery and a slow recovery process to fuse five vertebrae in my low back and the wearing of a back for three months until late June.

So how is it going in the hiking department and the hiking cycle? I have graduated out of a walker back to my hiking poles. Last week, I hiked (high risk) out to my back yard. My best excursion was today, a tenth of a mile on the road around a small block. I'm planning to up that to a quarter mile by next week. That is a lot to reminisce about. Ha. Ha.

The big challenge is to increase my distance, but under controlled conditions mostly on the road, I dare not take a spill which rules out any kind of uneven terrain including roots, rocks, steep inclines, and declines. Every step I take is with a lot of care and pre-thinking about what I'm doing. As my distance increases, my confidence level also improves.

My long-term plans will have to wait until the brace comes off. I expect any kind of extended woods hiking will be in September 2022 which will be 9 months since I last hiked. We are booked for a week in Maine and Acadia National Park. I do spend a lot of time reminiscing, especially when my son asks me a question about past trips in the mountains. It's a far cry from my hay-days of hiking, but time does fly when I'm having fun thinking of much hiking has affected my life. My aspirations and achievements have been modified with age and mobility, but the process and hiking cycle remains the same.