My first hike was a warm up hike:
This was a warm-up hike for me and my wife ( Linda ). It was a day hike. I don’t remember how far we hiked, but I guess that it must have walked around eight miles or so in the NJ Pine Barrens. The land was flat so we could walk at a pretty brisk pace. Our guide was a science teacher. He stopped to show us various plants, trees, and even carefully showed us many deer ticks. I was wearing my semi-broken in boots and using my brand new large Gregory Shasta backpack. I carried water for two people and some extra gear for camping. I wasn’t worried about the extra weight because I was hiking to see how my body and mind could handle the weight. It was optional to camp out for the night and hike some more the next day. Linda and I booked a hotel. She wasn’t going to camp out and hike the next day. I decided that one day was enough for a first hike.
I learned a bit. I found out that semi-broken in boots is better than wearing new boots, but not as good as wearing really broken in boots. ( This wasn’t really learning because I already knew that. It was more of experiencing a mistake. ) I learned that my preparation for handling blisters was acceptable. I packed a bunch of bandaids and neosporene ointment. I got a few blisters. Applied the bandaids and switched to a fully broken in pair of hiking shoes. Hiking in the sand took a fair amount of energy at times. I started walking on pine needles so that my energy wouldn’t be soaked up by the moving sand. I found out that hiking will be a solo-thing for me. My wife's knees aren't up to this hobby. Although she was successful in not getting any blisters. I also learned that removing 10 deer ticks is ok, unless you have 11. Yeah, I got lyme disease on my first hike. I was on antibiotics right away. That wasn’t fun, but everything is cool. I learned that my pack weight was acceptable and I started to think about using hiking poles after seeing how well they worked for other backpackers. I also learned a little about water filters by watching people using them.
What is SMA? It stands for Spinal Muscular Atrophy. It’s a genetic disease that makes the muscles go limp. There are different stages or levels of the disease. Many children born with the disease are lucky to reach age two. My wife, Linda, got involved with the SMA families when she made her first quilt for Cole. She was participating in a cross-stitch message board. An internet forum where people got together to stitch squares for victims of some diseases. For some reason a request for a quilt for Cole was denied because of him being too young or having the wrong disease. I don’t know. But my wife posted a message that she would be willing to put together a quilt if people sent in some squares. Well, she had enough squares from around the world to make a quilt and a couple of pillow cases. Then someone donated their air mileage so that Linda could hand deliver the quilt. From there Cole’s Quilts has taken off. Linda has made more than 100 quilts from the continued donations of squares. It’s pretty cool. So sometimes we go on SMA events to meet the lives that she has touched. This hike was one of those events. Through her work, she raised a bunch of money for that fund raising hike.