Authors' Note: I added a little blurb about the trip just below the video. Check it out!
It's been one year since this whole thing began, so I thought I'd offer up some reflections (and a fun photo montage my iPhone generated) on the trip that started it all off: The Alfred Wainwright Coast To Coast Trail across Northern England.
It was just a theory that I would enjoy hiking, I never tried anything remotely close to something like the C2C before (and boy did it show!). I am happy to say that, sometime between dipping my bare feet in the Irish Sea and doing the same in the North Sea a "mere" 18 days later, I had proven my theory to be correct. I was, and still am, hooked.
This was by no means a forgone conclusion, however. A million things could have gone differently causing me to hate the experience and vow never to hike, camp, or even walk ever again (While it is true I made such definitive claims during this and future trips, I was only as serious as one is when vowing never to drink again the morning after an alcohol infused night on the town).
I had originally planned to hike the C2C trail on my own, tent and dehydrated food in tow. I have a Ph.D. in physics, I thought, surely I can figure out how to walk for a few weeks without dying. Right? Luckily, my wonderful and intelligent mother talked some sense into me and convinced me to join up with a tour group for this first journey, just in case. I don't think I can thank her enough, because this really made all the difference, not just for the C2C, but for all the adventures I've done since, and all that I have left to do.
I don't necessarily concede that I couldn't have completed the C2C in one piece, but I was unprepared in many ways and being with a group of hikers, who were as experienced as they were generous and helpful, tended to lessen the impact of these deficiencies, making for a much more enjoyable experience.
Even if this was all the group provided for me, a team of real adults making sure I don't fall off any cliffs or fall prey to hypothermia, it would have been well worth purchasing the service. But they provided so much more with their friendship, compassion, humor, and intelligence. They didn't just help see me through from one sea to the other, they were also so often a major source of my happiness and enjoyment on the trip, rivaled only by the natural beauty of Northern England.
So to all my amazing C2C friends, I want to thank you for, at a very critical point in my life, helping me discover and foster this new passion of mine. You may not end up being the only adventuring family I make, or the largest, or even the closest knit, but you will always hold that special place in my heart as the first, the foundation on which all my future adventures are built upon. And what a sturdy foundation you are.
(Apologies to those not pictured. These are the most "complete" group shots I have apparently...)