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Hiking packs and podcasts

Spontaneous trips to somewhere new are oftentimes the trips that help mold us into a newer version of ourselves. Gain more experience or witness something and before you know it, a part of you has changed. In my husband’s and my case, I’ve learned that our bravery facing the wild has slightly shifted.

The rainy weather that we have been recently having finally settled enough for us to take the tags off of our hiking packs and set out on an unexpected adventure last weekend. We packed only the essentials — cookware, sleeping bags, sleeping mat, tent, clothes, first aid kit, flashlights, bug spray, pocket knives, rope, travel axe, gun, and food and water. It didn’t take long for our packs to fill. Altogether it only took us roughly an hour and a half before we drove over to Reid Lake.

With the mist clinging to our clothes, we hiked roughly a mile into the forest before my dear husband expressed concern about bears. I shrugged it off a few times and reassured him we were being loud enough. Especially with the radio on.

After a few hours I learned even more that probably changed a small part of me more than what I like to admit. For instance, I learned that I can axe a fallen tree for roughly over an hour by myself with little progress made. We both learned to value our communication skills a bit more so that way in the future I will not be dangling from a branch with the rope tangled around my feet again. I also learned that it is possible to have a fire made out of soaking wood as long as you have nothing else to occupy your time. More importantly, I learned I value toilets more than I did with the makeshift one available surrounded by spiders, fire ants, and what looked like a newly grown batch of poison ivy.

As you can imagine, within the first few hours, we were covered in sweat, dirt, and blisters. We knew our first hiking trip would be a challenge compared to the campgrounds we were accustomed to. We just did not expect it to be as difficult as it actually was.

On top of all of the unexpected hard work that was put into this lengthy trip, my husband’s fear of sleeping in bear country was becoming more noticeable. I would not be surprised if he mentioned something that involved black bears every 10 minutes. Afraid they would come and destroy the campsite, he made sure our food was a mile away just for extra measure. He also was afraid they would team up with coyotes and make our site a ritual with us as a sacrifice.

His fear led us to using what little service we had to research how to prevent any sightings of a black bear near you. Google, of course, told us what I already knew that we were experts at: “be loud, continue talking as they are afraid of human voices, act big if you spot one and back away slowly facing toward them, hang food 10 feet in the air and away from the trunk of the tree at least 100 yards away from the campsite… Remember, black bears are more scared of you then you are of them.”

Being loud is no issue for us. The entirety of our stay was spent listening to a podcast about minimalism through a speaker. How else was I supposed to learn about why people hoard things while trying to chop down a dead tree?

Somehow none of this was enough to calm my husband’s gut-wrenching feeling about seeing one. Not wanting him to be frightened all night, I eventually caved into his fear and we packed our things after the fire died off. All while entertaining any bear following us home with a topic about simplicity.

Hannah Hobbs is a millenial, a wife and a college student living in Hubbard Lake. Her column appears bi-weekly on Saturday.

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