One Foot in Front of the Other

A lake view from our hike.

If you had asked me before this trip, I probably would have told you that I hate hiking. I have not been considered a “tall kid”, as I once did, since I stopped growing around the age of 13. Over time I have seen that my overall pace is quite behind that of my peers when walking on campus and recently I was described as having “corgi legs” by a cycling instructor. I could certainly do something to improve my pace like taking regular walks or finding a local hiking trail in Minnesota, but adequate access to public transportation available around the Twin Cities has not made walking a necessity. The amount of walking associated with our course, although hinted at by our instructor prior to our travels, was more than I typically engaging in. My preferred method of walking is a slow, meandering pace accompanied by listening to music through earbuds. Upon reflection of my typical walking style, I am sure that this acts as a way for me to meditate and slow the fast pace of city life. However, being on this trip and doing so much moving, I have needed to adjust how I spend my time while on the move and I often am still quite behind the pace even when I am moving faster than I otherwise would. Although I struggled with the class walking pace during our first week, today’s Sweden hiking experience was quite rewarding and I may seek out experiences like it when I get back home.

I will be the first to admit that I tend to move quite slowly. Especially with steep inclines. I am quick to find myself out of breath when moving quickly up hills, usually to the point that I cannot hold a conversation. Even downhill presents problems as I tend to lean into the slope and can sometimes find myself falling (thankfully I have remained upright this entire trip!). Add this to rocky, uneven ground and poor decision making in the form of selecting old, beaten and coming-apart-at-the-seams Chuck Taylors for my footwear and you’ve got a rather unpleasant hike up ahead. At the beginning of the hike up the Swedish wilderness I was thankful for the constant stops to look at the local flora and the occasional indication that fauna had been in the area. Quickly however the guide trampled on at a much faster rate and there were times when I fell far enough behind that I could hardly see who was in front of me. For some time, I genuinely considered turning back as I was breathing too hard from the constant uphill and downhill motion and the rocky ground was quite painful given that I was hitting it quite quickly to try and keep up. Overall, I was honestly miserable for a good fifteen or so minutes, and the only reason I didn’t ask to turn back was because I knew that I would be going uphill everywhere I had just gone downhill. Without knowing how long the trail was or how the terrain would be, I told myself that either way would be a lot and I would rather finish what I started in pain than turn back and go alone.

To my surprise and relative delight, the rough, rocky terrain was not present throughout the entire hike. Shortly after I nearly turned around, the ground became soft and squishy with the beds of decomposing pine needles. I also opted to find joy in something simple with the crunching of small twigs as I stepped on each new mound of soft earth, which made putting one foot in front of the other less burdensome. I also thoroughly enjoyed sitting along the water’s edge during our longer breaks. Watching the pollywogs (or tadpoles as they are more commonly called in Minnesota) swarm up to the shore was somehow comforting, and the way they bumped aimlessly into each other, the substrate, and occasionally my dipped hand was also endearing. I also saw several water stick insects (as I have found them to be called, pictured to the bottom right) creepily swimming through the water and marching along the rocks. In hindsight, I think finding a body of water to be next to probably saved my attitude more than anything else, but at this point I think that is to be expected. The one area where the water was not welcome was in the swampy areas where, again, I came to regret not buying more comfortable walking shoes back in Minneapolis. As the weeks have
progressed a clear hole on the inside of both shoes has gotten larger and the canvas fabric is already permeable, so there was a rather uncomfortable sensation in my shoes until we eventually arrived back at the hotel.

Towards the end of the hike though, I cannot express how happy and surprised I was when the guide stated that there were only five minutes left in the hike. Despite the rejuvenated feeling I had, the trek was still strenuous and I was very proud to have completed the entire thing without needing to turn back early on. I think that I could find myself seeking out experiences like this when I get back home, but most likely at a pace that is more my speed, and with more stops to go swimming.