May 25th, 2016
We completed the Arizona National Scenic Trail on May 10th, picked-up our remaining drops (the garbage and extra items), spent two days in a Vegas Spa, took three days to drive back to Victoria and now we’ve been at home for a week or so.
We saw a site earlier this year to help support thru-hikers and the associated risks of depression. It was at the time an interesting discussion item… The reality is that the post long hike effects are real and we are feeling them. They showed-up in the form of sadness, absent activities and missing relationships. What now?
We completed the Arizona National Scenic Trail on May 10th, picked-up our remaining drops (the garbage and extra items), spent two days in a Vegas Spa, took three days to drive back to Victoria and now we’ve been at home for a week or so.
We saw a site earlier this year to help support thru-hikers and the associated risks of depression. It was at the time an interesting discussion item… The reality is that the post long hike effects are real and we are feeling them. They showed-up in the form of sadness, absent activities and missing relationships. What now?
They say it takes 3 weeks to get into a new routine. Well, we were immersed in the AZT for over 70 days and about the same amount of time prior to leaving in the planning and prep stage. The AZT had become our motivation for fitness, our full time job, and our main subject of conversation with all who would listen (sorry about that).
Now we come home to our beautiful green city and are somewhat dazed. We need a new home base, and we need to start thinking about work. Our fitness routine no longer has that strong guiding purpose and we are struggling a bit with the void that once was filled with this amazing journey.
Now we come home to our beautiful green city and are somewhat dazed. We need a new home base, and we need to start thinking about work. Our fitness routine no longer has that strong guiding purpose and we are struggling a bit with the void that once was filled with this amazing journey.
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True to our nature, we are moving toward re-creating our lives. We hope that we learned from our time ‘away’ and incorporate some new aspects to our routines. It's clear that the work/play balance continues to be important. Luckily for us we are passionate about our chosen careers, returning won’t be hard. But we both need to feel that we will have time for health/fitness goals and new adventures.
Living simply is another goal of ours. We downsized considerably prior to our sabbatical and for the last 8 months we’ve mostly worn the same 2 outfits every day, slept in a tent/hostel, and had very few modern luxuries. Returning to the city brings about the materialistic focus of our society, we've simply promised ourselves to be mindful. The other aspect of this trip is our realization of how fortunate we are to have such great people in our lives. Relationships are what it’s all about. Keeping connections with our family, old friends and the pleasure of having/creating new ones is crucial. What an amazing and varied bunch of people we have in our lives! For this we are eternally grateful and we send you our love. |
Slowly we focus on the next adventure… (Motorcycle) riding across North America. Very little planning and no room for much stuff - two months of visiting people!