First things first…I don’t hike. In fact, I haven’t hiked for seventeen years. I can tell you exactly my last one – Denny Creek, a hike I’d been on many, many times, to beautiful Franklin Falls. It was my last serious hike because for the first time in my life, I broke a bone. But just not any bone. A rib. If you’ve never broken a rib or even bruised that area, you are so very lucky. After finally being able to catch your breath, the ensuing pain that lasts for weeks is so strong it will knock you back. I have a pretty high threshold for pain but this was excruciating. All I wanted to do was lay in bed and try very hard not to move even an inch. But let’s face it, even if this hadn’t happened I doubt I’d still be hiking. Beyond the natural beauty out there, there’s not much else I enjoy. And don’t even get me started on camping. Unless it has the Four Seasons or Mandarin Oriental on it, I ain’t sleepin’ in it. But this has mostly to do with my last camping run-in with some bears…ah, there’s always a story. 

However, if someone had told me hiking could be like this, I might have resigned for that gig a long time ago. I started reading The Hike Guy a few months ago. It was this post by Kolby Kirk that caught my eye. Literally stopped me in my tracks. It appealed to so many of my senses: art, organizing, memorializing life.  First off, I love the fact that I can read this man’s handwriting! Too many of my male friends have the most atrocious penmanship. I won’t even explain how long it takes for me to decipher Farb’s handwriting.  Good thing he emails a lot. But more than that, I love how Kolby captures everything! Not just through words but through pictures, quotes, mementos, receipts, drawings. The drawings are crazy awesome. I wish I could just read all his journals and see all his photographs. It would completely sate any urge to go for a hike that I get from following his blog. I thought I had totally reached the peak of my Hike Guy crush until I saw this! It destroyed me…in a super great way. Love, love, love. 

If I could get my head around it and learn to do all the things Kolby does I might just one day go on another hike. Until then I will hike vicariously through his blog. God, he looks so happy out there!