Thursday We Hike

To everything there is a season and a time to every purpose under the heaven.

Ecclesiastes 3:1

When I moved to my rural home in northeastern Washington several years ago I learned that there was a women’s hiking group that met on Thursdays and explored the many trails nearby, often getting together after the hike to share a beer at a local pub. The group intrigued me, but it took me a few years before I got over my insistence that I only ventured into the mountains as a solo hiker.

You might have surmised by the title of my blog that I enjoy the rich experience of being alone in the mountains or wherever the trail takes me. I started solo hiking while still in my early twenties when I was working at my first job as a Registered Nurse and had days off during the week when the trails were less crowded. I started day hiking initially in the area that would soon become the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area, a beautiful system of trails studded with jewel like lakes only about a thirty minute drive from my home near Seattle. It did not take long before I discovered there were lakes that beckoned me that I could not reach in a single day and routes that required two to three days to complete.

Soon I was reaching those destinations as a solo hiker, and my alone time in the mountains become increasingly precious to me. I extended the length of these treks to five days and over the years began spending more time on the trails alone. I did a yearly trek, adding one day each year and more and more pounds in my pack to enable me to stay out for as long as two weeks.

I did not know it at the time, but I was learning an important life lesson that would prepare me for these “golden years.” Since my husband’s death I live alone in a sweet country cottage with my two dogs. I miss him of course, but I am not bothered in the least by my lack of companionship. I find that I am pretty good company for myself.

The challenge for me is not painful endurance of loneliness but instead finding a support system of lively women friends who enjoy the adventures I continually seek. It has been easy. Thursday We Hike has become a weekly experience that has allowed me to explore new trails, create new friendships, celebrate the changes in our lives and in the world, and grieve the losses together. I have come to love the lively chatter that accompanies me on the trails on Thursdays. It reminds me of a rippling brook making its way down from the melting snowfields. Laughter is a gift that comes unbidden, a moment of grace, a reminder that though there is much suffering in the world, there is still joy, and it comes to us on a mountain trail with friends.

I have not stopped hiking alone, and I do not intend to. There is time in my life to be present with my thoughts and feelings while hiking alone and for that rippling laughter I have come to appreciate. Yes, Thursday We Hike, but also Friday and Saturday and any other day of the week. There is time for solitude. There is time for laughter.