We all have that one thing, don't we? That one activity that makes us feel closer to our partners, unlike anything else. For us, it’s a shared love of multi-day hiking. It’s slow and quiet. Each day ends with an overnight stay. While it’s undoubtedly a grand travel adventure, it’s also a simple, powerful way we reconnect.
A Shared Project
The first step is a little like putting a puzzle together. Our first consideration is where we’ll be traveling to anyway — it just makes sense financially, right? Since our daughter lives in Scotland, we’ve mostly hiked there. We’re lucky: it’s a gorgeous, iconic place to hike with plenty of wonderful, well-marked routes with charming towns along the way for overnight stays — just like we like it.
Once we pick a hike, we isolate a 3- to 4-day section. It’s a fun, united effort — if one of us did all the research, it wouldn't feel like an “us” thing. Additionally, the anticipation is difficult to put into words. But it’s equally serious business: mistakes here will haunt us later. Stay tuned!
I’ll set the scene for you: with Scottish music and drams of whisky, we sit together side-by-side, mapping out the route. We obsess over the trail, cozy inns and geek out on the topography, mileage and bloggers’ comments. It’s part of our planning MO — another reason we invested in high-performance backpacks a few years back, another sign of this being our thing. Sure, you can have your bags transferred for you, but we like the discipline (and challenge) of doing it ourselves.
Unplugged Connection
Once we hit the trail, it’s pure joy — all the prior planning comes alive and each day is exhilarating. It feels surreal to be untethered from the reality of the day-to-day. Disconnected from phones and work, we just walk, sometimes talking about our adult kids and their adventures, work challenges, or things we’re reading and learning. Other times we’re silent, enraptured by the surrounding beauty.