The hard physical work of raising cattle and working on a grain farm — well into my adult years — kept me active and physically fit. Even in my youth, outside of participating in every sport available in our rural community, the thought of exercising just for the sake of it never entered my mind because at the end of each day my body was tired…I did not need to do crunches or yoga or hike for miles on top of what I had already done that day. Add to that, if Dad thought and of us kids had that kind of energy to spare, I am pretty sure he would have offered up more chores to take care of that excess.
After moving to the city the workout I used to get from throwing hay bales and halter breaking 2000+ pound bulls disappeared, and my muscle tone suffered because of it. As I had never learned how to exercise for ‘fun’, I treated exercise as just another labor intensive task that had to be done, and in the least amount of time possible. Perhaps that is why, even though I live an hour from the Rocky Mountains, the idea of spending an entire day climbing mountain paths for the sake of just getting to the top made no sense to me. As I was not used to stopping and smelling the roses (so to speak), the whole hiking concept seemed like, well, ranch work all over again!
Yes, yes, I know what you are going to say! “But Lorene, the mountains are beautiful! There is amazing plant life, views and if you are lucky, you get to see wildlife up close and personal!” Well, in my mind, with a slightly different landscape, I lived a kind of hiking-back-to-nature existence for many, many years. Plant life was admired if it was somehow in the food chain feeding us or the livestock. Most often, traditional wildflowers were viewed as weeds…nothing to admire there. Animals, wild or domestic, were also part of my world growing up. The livestock (cattle, horses, chickens) needed tending…365 days a year. There just wasn’t time to stand around admiring them… although I don’t know that I would have even tried when it came to chickens…can’t say I find anything beautiful in them. As for wild animals, they were mostly problematic as they often caused damage to the land or buildings or ate the food meant for the more expensive domestic variety.
So, it should come as no surprise that my response to friends extolling the virtues of hiking in order to admire weeds and pesky wild animals was, “No! I don’t want to!” If they persisted in long winded dissertations about the wonders and beauty, yadda, yadda, yadda, I just tuned them out…until a couple of months ago…
Years of high impact sports, running and stair climbing eventually took its toll on my knees. Add to that the beginnings of arthritis and my chiropractor advised against doing all of them if I wanted to avoid knee replacement surgery down the road. He suggested I take up…horror of horrors…hiking!
After ignoring his advice for a few weeks, a Bakers Cyst at the back of one knee started to hurt rather than just be annoying. Determined to keep tending my body — even if it meant doing something that seemed nonsensical to me — I asked a friend to take me on a typical newbie hike in the nearby foothills. Of course before that could happen, I had to make sure I well as well informed about the world of hiking as possible…remember, surprises are not a favorite of those who live through an unimaginable event. On the other hand, it could just the result of being bat-bleep-crazy as another work mate of mine attributes all my foibles to.
For a month I grilled everyone at work on every aspect of hiking…you would think I was planning a trip to Mt. Everest instead of a trek up a gentle slope an hour’s drive from home! Eventually, after hundreds of hiking tips and a thousand dollars’ worth of hiking gear later, I was ready for my 2 hour hike…yes, this is absolutely the appropriate time for you to roll your eyes or break out into hysterical laughter! What can I say, maybe Helen – that’s H-e-l-e-n in case you want to frown at her the next time you see her ’cause I am obviously far too nice for that title – is a teeny, tiny bit correct.
Much to my surprise I loved it! While I have to confess, I was pretty weak on the enjoy-the-scenery part…I can’t help it…my brain, and by default my body, tells me to get wherever I am going as fast as I can so I can complete whatever mission I am on, but I did find myself stopping once to take a picture at one of the Grassi Lakes. To be honest, I am not sure if the smile on my face had more to do with being able to rest my now quivering, jelly legs or…naw, it was the beauty…I cannot tell a lie. The water was so clear, everything on the bottom of the lake showed up as if it was being viewed in high definition…absolutely amazing! See for yourself…the water people! Not the weak legged bad hiker person about ready to fall into it.
In the days that followed I thought to myself, maybe this hiking thing isn’t so bad. My body feels like it has received a workout and the whole lets talking about and looking at well, nature, didn’t make me want to push anyone off the mountain so maybe I should give this city-slicker activity another try.
Two weeks later, determined to reach even higher levels of hiking fitness, I asked one of my workmates, Colleen, an avid hiker in her own right, if she wanted to go on one with me. Not fully understanding what she was getting herself into, she say, “Yes.”
Based on her recommendation, we chose a hike up to the Barrier Lookout (which has a working fire lookout station) in the Kananaskis Country about an hour west of Calgary. The hike is 13.1 km (8.14 miles) to an elevation of 1981 meters (6500 ft.) that the guide books say is roughly 5 hours roundtrip. After studying the weather forecasts – don’t laugh, on second thought, I did actually ‘study’ multiple websites and projected satellite imaging, so maybe laughter is in order – the optimum day was chosen and off we went…
True to form, I went at this hike with a focus usually reserved for an Olympic event! With head down and nothing on my mind (I heard that Helen!) other than proper breathing and placing one foot in front of the other, I figured we could get up and down the mountain in say, 3 hours instead of 5. Poor Colleen, her attempts to get me to slow down and enjoy the scenery was a challenge. When she tried to draw my attention to a weed…oops, I mean wildflower…I would pause long enough to say, “That’s nice” before continuing on with my forced march. Running after me she would try pointing out another one with more animation this time, “Lorene, look at that one, isn’t it beautiful?” to which I would pause, glance over my shoulder and say “Yes, Colleen, it’s lovely” but I am thinking, oh for God’s sake, it’s the same darn plant…over and over and over again! She is not going to stop so I am just going to call out, “Nice flower” ahead of time and get it over with! I think that strategy worked pretty good because Colleen quit trying to get me to stop after that which is kind of sad because it wasn’t the same plant and I missed out on something she knew that I did not…just how very important it was to stop and smell the roses and maybe learn a little something while doing it!
The good news is eventually the stillness and yes, the beauty — and yes, the darn weeds — finally got to me. When we stopped at the cliff edge about 2/3’s of the way up, the view of the mountains was jaw dropping. Civilization, now far beneath us, was only visible in miniature form. At that moment I began to get a sense of why this activity is so enticing to so many people. Of course, Lorene still being Lorene, as soon as we finished our snack break, I jumped up and said, “Enough resting, we have to get to the top!” and off I raced.
If you are starting to wonder why Colleen had not thrown me off the mountain by now, you might want to know that I am directionally challenged. My tendency to race ahead usually ended up with her calling out, “Lorene, wrong way!” That little weakness of mine a) made the hike much longer than advertised due to a lot of backtracking and b) resulted in me mostly walking behind her for most of the hike ergo following her pace, and not mine which was far more sensible.
When we reached our ‘goal’, we enjoyed a restful lunch, complete with…shhhh…don’t tell anyone…a nice glass of wine…and marvelled at the wonders of what lay in front of us.
While this picture doesn’t do the scenery justice, I have to tell you the view is breath taking. It was surprising cold and very windy, which seemed to take turns blowing from all directions, but the visual gifts were, well, worth every single step needed to get there. I am grateful to my ‘guide’ for allowing me to participate in this wonderful experience.
I guess I am a hiker now…okay, maybe a kind of mutant hiker, but hey…that I tried something new is amazing considering the broken and beaten person I was a mere 14+ year ago. I would be lying if I said that Kalei was not part of the day. Every now and then I would think, Kalei, you should be here, walking alongside me. But, before tears flowed, I would always look heavenward and whisper,, “I know Sweetie Pie, it’s just that sometimes its hard to be okay with faith and spirit alone.”
After that I would let out a big sigh, whisper “I love you” and turn back to the trail and the life that lay in front of me.
So am I the poster child for hiking now? Hmmm…that might be a bit optimistic considering my driven nature. The hiking part I like but unless mountain ‘livestock’ appeared and forced themselves on me or I was forced to eat weeds, Dangit, wildflowers to survive, I suspect I will never truly become one with the wilderness folks. What I do know is I have placed something new on my future blackboard and that my friends, makes it easier to add more and more to what I hope is a long and yes, joyful Lifetime Ahead. I can wish for that now thanks to a very special angel who never really leaves my side, even if I can’t actually see or feel her physical presence.
