Obituary: Hiking Shoes

The moment has come....where I had to trash my FIRST pair of hiking shoes. I have used these shoes for almost four years of hiking, and they were probably expired over two years ago, but I kept using them. They haven't been keeping my feet dry for a while, but I allowed nostalgia to trump practicality. The last hike I did in these shoes, it was raining so hard, and the trail was so muddy that my socks had to be peeled off my feet, and my skin was so brown from all the muddy water that leaked into my shoes. I was flooded (pun intended) with the memories of all the trails that these shoes took me on, including my FIRST hike in Washington.

I moved to Seattle in May 2012, and I went on my first hike in August 2012. During those first few months in Seattle, I was working on improving my fitness level, since I had become quite sedentary being a graduate student. Living in downtown Seattle, it promoted me to walk almost everywhere, and I finally felt ready to embrace the hiking lifestyle of PNW with a small hike at Mount Rainier.

I went with another Seattle transplant from Florida. She had never been hiking before either. We each had a bottle of water, a backpack with a few snacks, and our cell phones for navigation to the visitor center at Mount Rainier. We did zero research on trails or anything, we basically thought it would be fun to go hiking, and there ended our thought process; clearly we were amateurs and bordering along the lines of being idiots.

We arrived in the late morning so the visitor center's parking lot was full, so we had to park in another parking lot and take a 20-minute shuttle to the visitor center. After talking with the ranger at the park entrance, we decided we wanted to hike the 4-mile Reflection Lake trail. Completely doable...on paper. Since we had never been hiking before, we just assumed there would be signs marking every intersection, telling you which direction to go; which of course is not the case. We got sooooooo lost, we would have been easy pickings for a bear cub if it was in the vicinity. Our simple 4-mile hike turned into almost 8-miles, and remember it's the peak of summer, and we had one bottle of water. And to add to further insult, mosquitos were EVERYWHERE! We were eaten alive, I remember having over 50 bites once we were done hiking, and we had brought zero sunscreen. Conclusion to this story, we didn't die; we made it back to the visitor center, drank gallons of water, and immediately got back on the road to come back to Seattle.

My first hike was a humbling experience. I am sure after that experience, many people would have decided that hiking just wasn't for them. However, when I got back to the safety of my apartment, I realized how amazing the experience was, and I just couldn't appreciate it at the moment. Since that first hike, I have tried to encourage other friends that have never hiked to embark on the journey with me.

My fitness has clearly improved since 2012, and I have successfully completed a 22-mile day-hike. This year I am aiming to complete the 52 hike challenge. Four years ago, it was difficult for me to just walk four miles without being worn out. Now, after completing hikes, I feel rejuvenated and at peace. Transformation may not always be physical, but rather something that happens mentally. For me, it has been both.

I have purchased a new pair of hiking shoes from REI, and I went on my first hike on Tiger Mountain last weekend. And yes, it was glorious when I took my socks off, that I didn't have to worry about any epidermis coming off.