While Spring training brings to mind baseball teams and track practices, we are getting in shape for a walking trip in Brittany, France which starts in early May. It is liberating to finally get outdoors, breath fresh air and revisit our favorite trails in the N.C. Arboretum, on the Biltmore Estate, along the Blue Ridge Parkway, and onto the Biltmore Lake network of walking paths. We are building up stamina for the coastal walks in Brittany that will take us from hotel to hotel. Suddenly, my Fit Bit is buzzing happily as I clock my minimum 10,000 steps more often than I have in months.
Austin at Little League spring training...
Our trip in Brittany will be the fifth such adventure with the same British company known as Inntravel. Our first was four years ago, walking through the vineyards of the Douro Valley in northern Portugal . The next year we did a 7-day hike along the Costa Brava in Spain. Then one November we were more adventuresome with a 7-day walk through the foothills of the Atlas Mountains in Morocco lead by a private guide. Our most recent was a spring hike two years ago in the Dordogne Valley of France walking from one medieval village to the next.
Hiking with "the Slow Holiday People"
Guided by Inntravel ‘s detailed walking notes, carrying a daypack with necessities for what we might encounter along the way, a journal, and camera, we set off each day by ourselves into the countryside. With the entire day to make our way to a destination we have time to take in the world around us. It took only one such foreign trip to be hooked on this new way of travel … observing the world on foot. Inntravel’s motto is The Slow Holiday People. Our daily reward is the satisfaction of completing the notes for that day (without getting lost) and luxuriating on an overnight stay at a charming country hotel.
Art and I have not been lifelong hikers. In fact, hiking as a recreational pastime is new for us. We started doing it when we moved to Asheville nearly 8 years ago. Hiking is what everyone does in Asheville regardless of age. Most of our friends and neighbors are active hikers, and hiking groups are everywhere. Regular hiking requires plenty of free time (ideal for retirees like us) and the will to push yourself beyond your comfort zone with a focus on the end reward. Hiking brings with it a sense of adventure but most of all well-being. The idea that I can spend many hours outdoors in nature breathing, thinking, meditating, visiting, or simply being quiet and observing inspires me to do more. There is a real “high” that comes from hours of walking and miles covered when you are finished. Hiking is not officially considered a sport because there is no competition. I might differ with that somewhat as there is a subtle competitiveness I hear amongst what I call my super hiker friends.
Conversations can go like this…
“We did the 8-miler with the hiking group last Saturday in Bent Creek. Have you done it? It was good but next time we I want to try the 12-miler.”
Or I might hear someone say, “John and I plan to lead the hike next Saturday down in Dupont National Park. It’s only an 7-miler but the bonus are the waterfalls. Week after we’ll do a longer one.”
I’m amused the way the hiking talk turns to mileage and hikes are assessed by how long they are and whether or not you managed it. To me this becomes competitive which is why Art and I keep our own pace preferring to go at it by ourselves.
There is rarely a day goes by that I don’t want to be outdoors walking somewhere even if it’s just going from home to the library and back. Heck, that’s a 2-miler round trip! Hiking keeps me tuned in to each season and noticing the subtle changes in nature around me. When I walk I do my best thinking and often come home with a creative idea worked out or a solution to a problem I might be wrestling with. Hiking makes me feeling young. I, too, can brag and say I did a 6-miler in the Arboretum today. What I don’t add is that I am in my seventies now and can’t imagine a life without this kind of mental and physical exercise.. Most of all hiking keeps me optimistic about life and the world around me regardless of whether I do a 2 -miler or an 8.
Early spring flowers
For us, though, the ultimate reward has been our organized European walking trips and we’ll continue to go with the “slow holiday people” for as long as we are able.
We don’t stop hiking because we grow old –
We grow old because we stop hiking.
Finis Mitchell
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