On the Trail

My husband and I had the supreme pleasure of seeing our only daughter last week. Due to the evilness of recent times we had not seen her for over two years. She drove 1,200 plus miles to join us at a beautiful cabin in our beloved Black Hills. My husband was contracted to do carpentry work on the cabin and the homeowners graciously allowed us to enjoy their property for our mini-reunion. We gulped up every moment of togetherness, thirsty for time together.

My daughter has a golden retriever dog named Charlie and each day we made sure he had a chance to burn some energy. Sometimes we just walked down the road and enjoyed the flora and fauna near the cabin. Other times we selected a hiking trail in the area and explored new settings.

One trail we chose had a somewhat ambiguous trailhead and final destination. It was an in-and-out trail, meaning it was not a loop. We missed the trailhead on our first attempt but found another trail that was delightful with numerous stream crossings and rock formations. We may have not found the trail we were seeking but our plan B was no less worthy.

The following day we found our trail and set out to see what we could see. There were several other people on the trail including a few photographers working hard to get the best shots of the sparkling stream ripples, the golden aspen leaves and the gray granite cliff formations. Charlie loved the spacious trail and the chance to splash around in the water. I did what all moms do and watched out for falling rocks and unsafe selfies.

One of the photographers we met asked us if we knew how far it was to the final destination of the trail. My daughter and I paused and looked at each other. We realized that we really hadn't considered that as our end game. I replied that we had never taken this trail before and our only goal was enjoyment. He smiled, nodded and went back to chasing the perfect photo.

Later in the week we took another trail that was supposed to be a loop. After a lot of uphill climbing on two different trail possibilities, we abandoned the idea of finding the loop. We agreed that we were probably a feet away from finding the connecting link between the two trails but who doesn't want to climb uphill both ways? Our goal was really more about the search than the destination so mission accomplished.

There are certainly two kinds of hikers. There are those who churn away with a dogged determination to reach a certain goal, taking little heed of streams, leaves, flowers or sparkly rocks along the way. The accomplishment is the end point. The other type of hiker is the meanderer. These folks are often found butt in the air as they try to identify a wildflower or admire a bracket fungus on a tree log or laugh at a crazy dog splashing in a stream. The accomplishment is the moment with no need for summit boasting.

Our family time was all about meandering our way through quiet days spent together. Along the way we discovered new roads, eye-popping fall colors and great streams for dog splashing. Summit attained.

(Pro tip for hiking: Wear appropriate shoes for stream crossing or get really good at crab walking across slippery rocks.)

Photo credit to my daughter for the great bracket fungi photo!