Walking Overdone

Many years ago when I was in scouts our troop used to go on a 21 mile hike. And this wasn't some prissy Illinois man made hill hike, this was through the Appalachian mountains. All right, it was more the foothills of the mountains but I was just a little tike so it's close enough. The hike was neat because during the course of it we would go through all sorts of different landscapes. Some areas were very dry, others had creeks, some were grassy fields, and others were forests, and of course there were the ups and downs of the valleys and hill tops.

The first time we went on this hike, we got a bit lost and ended up walking more like 27 miles before some guy driving by in pickup stopped and gave us all a ride back to where we started. The second time we did better at staying on the path. It's not like we purposely left the path, it was just that the map wasn't always easy to follow and sometimes the trees were not clearly marked (on long hikes some of the trees are usually painted with a colored dot to let you know which path you are on).

I remember the first time we did the hike, about an hour in we had been talking about snakes and that we should watch out for them. After the talk-and-walk the guy in the back of the line took two twigs in his hand, and jammed them in the ankle of the guy just in front of him. Gurney, if you're reading, this was none other than JAH. He did not quite see the humor of the situation, which was unfortunate because no one else could stop laughing. He jumped so far he fell down a small cliff, and yelled out "Oh S#@t!!" Which we had to rag on him for because we were still at that age where we couldn't quite get away with it yet. Hilarious.

Anyway, on those hikes we always had at least one adult leader with us. Those hikes were particularly challenging for them since all but one of them were in pitiful shape. As a result we would take lots of little 10 minute breaks, so the leaders could get their nic-fixes.

This past week I was invited on a pilgrimage and was reminded of those hikes and the adult leaders. The pilgrimage is Polish affiliated, starts in a Church in Chicago and ends up somewhere in a Church in Indiana over a two day time period. Over a thousand people go on this pilgrimage every year. A bunch of my friends are going on this and they invited me to come along. But here's the problem. It's 32 miles. Now I just wrote about how those out-of-shape fatties went on a 21 mile hike through the mountains, but hear me out.

My main problem is that in order for me to attend this pilgrimage I would likely have to be up at 1 in the morning, to meet up with my friends and then travel with them onto the Church which we have to be at between 6 and 7. Then we have Mass and after that start walking probably around 8. The walk has two breaks. One at lunch at 1, and then at the end of the first night between 6 and 8. So for me that's a bear minimum of a 17 hour day. Then we have to get up the next day and do the same thing, and then I get to drive myself home. And I think that's just too much. I remember those 21 mile hikes. They really weren't all that bad, until about the last 2 or 3 miles. That last bit was absolutely terrible and that was when I was in fantastic shape. Now I'm those old men, this pilgrimage is about 10 miles more, and we aren't getting all those lovely small breaks which really do help a lot.

Well there you have it. Maybe I'm being a little nancy boy here. In any event I can live with it, and will be praying for them as I sit on my couch with my ice-cream watching the first new episode of Monk this season.