Armchair Hikers

 


I've always been interested in hiking, but not exercising. Go figure. That may have something to do with growing up in New England, where the mountains are smaller and the possibilities for day trips innumerable. 

That being said, my interest (and my husband's!) in hiking was really piqued last spring as we were surfing through YouTube. Within a few weeks' time, we came across two hiking channels. One was
Live Sutton, which was chronicling four-year-old Harvey Sutton's quest to become the youngest person ever to hike the entire Appalachian Trail. The other was First Church of the Masochist Hikes, following cantankerous Matt "Masochist" Hengst hiking all the way from Key West through Canada.  

"You sit down and watch OTHER people hike?!" someone asked us incredulously. Yeah, I know. But it wasn't purely for entertainment's sake. As we watched, both Dan and I found ourselves asking, "If a four-year-old can do that, why can't we?" As Masochist hiked for thousands of miles, pushing himself through the tedium and uncooperative weather and numerous mosquitos, we thought that while thru hiking for months upon months wasn't our thing, perhaps we could do something. 

The thing about hiking is, it's free. Our family can do it together. It takes us away from our ever pervasive electronics (well, except for the AllTrails app on my phone and all of the photos I like to snap). Yes, there are bugs. Mud. Overgrown trails. Sweat. It's not everyone's idea of a good time. But after watching Harvey conquer Katahdin and Masochist make it to New Brunswick, we started to think: What could we do? 

This year we're still watching Masochist, who this summer has been hiking the entire Continental Divide Trail. The Suttons hiked the John Muir Trail with five-year-old Harvey, no sweat. And we are headed outside and making an effort to delve deeper into our own little part of the world. 

Thanks, YouTube. 



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