Hiking on My Own

Before the pandemic I hiked twice a week, mostly in silence, on hikes led by a friend—amazing hikes, often off-trail, with stunning vistas—places where it felt as if no one had walked those grounds for centuries. 
When the pandemic began, my friend chose not to lead hikes. People who agreed to hike with me cancelled at the last minute. I was frustrated, irritated, and wary of popular hikes where there were too many people and no solitude. I remembered a hike I had found years ago when I was still hiking with a regular hiking buddy. The little known trail is steep both ways and not on any popular trail maps. I decided in mid-March that I would hike every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday by myself. 

Despite initial trepidation at hiking in wilderness by myself, I began. Each hiking morning I email a friend to tell her when I am leaving and email her when I return. The regularity of hiking three times a week gives a rhythm to my week, a way to dissolve rising tensions over the election and my dying cat. Hiking in the mountains offers comfort, deep breathing, confidence that at 84 I can still do a hard hike in good time, and the sense that I am connected to the earth and trees and birds and rocks and sky. I am hiking by myself but I am not alone. I am home inside myself.

Mountain Solace

In the mountains,
when I’m hiking, 
and the energy of the trees.
is sending me murmurs of hope
that help to heal the distance
between myself and me,
I am comforted.
As I walk among the trees,
their leaves stirring in the breeze,
I hear them whisper: 
“You have come.
Go easy.
Be filled with light.
You are here.
You are home.”