A Walk in the Woods and the Rain

One of my Create in Me friends has periodically posted photos of her hikes in the mountains of western North Carolina.  When we moved here, one of the things I hoped to do eventually was go on a hike with her.  Yesterday, I was able to do just that, and it was amazing.

She's the type of hiker who knows all sorts of trails that are off the beaten path.  She thinks about the agility of her hiking group and chooses the perfect hike.  Yesterday, we had some challenges--some places where water needed to be traversed across logs and rocks.  I was more scared than I expected to be at first.  

What scared me?  Any number of things, from stupid things like getting my shoes wet (if I had known about the rain we would experience, I wouldn't have tried to preserve the dryness of my shoes) to falling and cracking my head against a rock.  I was scared of broken bones.  I had irrational fears of being swept away--but the water underneath us wasn't flowing swiftly or at all.  Most of all, I was scared of broken bones.

Come to find out, the rocks weren't slippery at all, which made getting across them easier.  And I am so glad I faced my fears and persevered.  By the end of the hike, I made my way across the rocks in the casual way my younger self did, that girl with no knowledge of broken bones and all the ways life in a physical body can be difficult.

Along the way we saw a variety of mushrooms and other plants.  

We saw waterfalls.  We ate lunch on a heart shaped rock.  We saw a few other hikers, some with a dog, some with a 12 week baby, and one with his 15 year old daughter coming back from a backpacking trip.  It made me happy to be human.

On our way back, the rains swept in.  It went from a light patter to a drenching downpour, and on we hiked.  Happily, I love walking in the rain, and our starting temperature was fine, so we didn't have to worry about our body heat.  I did worry a bit about rising water, but we were fine.  On the way back, we saw waterfalls by the road that weren't there when we drove up.

It was good to be reminded that I'm far more capable than I sometimes think that I am.  It was good to hike in a different place.  It was great to be with friends.  It was wonderful to breathe the mountain air and to feel the rain and to know that the planet has ways to heal.