a natural disaster (me, on a hike)

hey everyone!

i miss exercising everyday after school with my soccer team. i know that might sound crazy to some of you, but running drills for two hours & being out of breath & having my muscles ache is a feeling i actually really enjoy. but my soccer season got cancelled & i’ve been quarantined for a month, so i haven’t been able to exercise like that in awhile. i still workout everyday, but it’s not an intense, i am literally about to throw up & pass out at the same time type of cardio that i was used to.

the weather has been lovely here recently, so i decided to go hiking to try & get some exercise. i have a decent amount of hiking experience, i think. my mom is basically a mountain woman, & she’s taken me on a good number of hikes in my life. however, i wouldn’t necessarily say that i’m any good at it, considering that the last time i went hiking, several people got lost & we didn’t get out of the woods until after midnight.

but this time went a lot better! no one went missing, anyway, which is a win in my book. the trail i picked was 9.5 miles long, had an elevation gain of 2,200 feet, & went up & down two mountains.

spring hadn’t quite hit, so there weren’t many flowers & the trees were pretty bare. most of the trail looked like this: rocky, with just a little color from evergreens & plants that could handle the early springtime chill.

there was some plant life left over from last summer, like this dead queen anne’s lace.

we (my mom & i) reached the summit of the first mountain about halfway through the hike.

here’s the view!! (that mountain on the right side of the picture is the second one we hiked.)

 the summit is this huge rocky area with tons of boulders stacked up on top of each other. i love bouldering, it makes me feel like i’m in one of those bear grylls survival shows.

speaking of bear grylls, that man was probably my first crush. while we were hiking, my mom told me that i used to have a poster of him in my room that i had ripped out of a boy scout magazine. i have no memory of that, but young me definitely had good taste.

i wanted to get some pictures for my instagram, but my mom is kind of the worst photographer ever & this was the only photo of me that wasn’t super awful.

my instagram feed has been filled with hiking pictures recently. it’s super confusing to me because i know that half of the people posting that stuff don’t even like being outdoors?? the world gets hit by one (1) pandemic & suddenly everyone likes nature.

hey guys did you know that i have a kånken? showing it off is lowkey the whole point of this post. make sure you leave me a comment telling me that you love my backpack (it’s a kånken by the way, i just wanted make to make sure everyone knew). ok thanks, moving on.

we found a single peach tree blooming by the side of the trail. a hiker must have thrown away a peach pit a decade or two ago & it grew into something beautiful, all on its own in the middle of the woods. that’s what bob ross might call a happy accident.

another hiker pointed out this luna moth to us as we were passing him. most of the luna moths i’ve seen in my life were dead because their lifespan is only about one week long, so it was exciting to see one that was still hanging in there.

in my opinion, this was the prettiest view of the whole hike. i just love that pointy mountain in the background, & the pines surrounding the rocks were low enough that i could see more mountains to the left & a field-filled valley to the right.

the hike took just about the whole day to complete. my ankles & hips felt like they were ready to snap in half by the time we finished the loop. (thank you, soccer, for giving me joint problems while i’m still a teenager.)

here are my thoughts on this hike:

– other than the rocky summit of the first mountain, there weren’t very many ncie views.

– the scenery just wasn’t that interesting. there were a few streams, but that was about it. i think it’ll be a prettier trail when the trees get their leaves, but i’m not planning on hiking it again anytime soon, so i guess i’ll never know.

– it was a really hard hike!! i guess i should’ve known that because the hiking website i found it on gave it five stars for difficulty, but it was still more challenging than i was expecting. it felt like it was all uphill.

– i saw a few puppies!! 10/10 wildlife

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i have to go on another all-day hike in order to get my hiking badge, but i’ve picked out a much more exciting trail for that. it passes by caves, has some huge, pointy rock formations, & travels over clifftops. a lot of trails are closed right now because they were getting too much traffic, so i’m not sure when i’ll get to go, but it’s going to be a great trip.

of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt. – john muir

xo apollo