a quiet hike

Do you ever want to run away from all your responsibilities? I do. 

Sometimes it’s not such a bad idea. 

The last week in October, I saw stress coming from a mile away. I work as a freelance writer so I make my own schedule, but I had managed to put off an entire month’s worth of assignments until the week they were due. You might think that’s the right time to buckle down and work nonstop until it was done, but then you wouldn’t be me. 

I took a hike instead. 

This may seem counterproductive, but I met my deadline with time to spare. I have no regrets. 

I planned my week around the hike to make time for it, and I used it as a sort of reward, even though I “spent” that reward pretty early on in the week. I allowed myself to go if I made good progress on Monday and got at least one assignment done on Tuesday before the hike. (This last part was a good policy because I did end up taking a nap after I got home, which was not part of the plan.) 

To that end, I took myself first to Native Bagel Co. in Berea, KY. I hadn’t been before, but it turned out to be a great place to do some work. There were plentiful tables, even with a small construction project going on in the corner, and the wifi was great. The coffee was excellent, the bagels were delicious, and they were generous with the cream cheese.

It’s clearly a popular spot to meet and do classwork in the mornings for folks from Berea College (it’s only open until 1:00 pm, so mornings are a must if you go), but it was never so crowded that it was a problem. My favorite part, other than my berry lemon zest bagel, was the wall draped in live plants. It was a lovely place to work for a couple of hours. 

I finished up my assignments for the morning by 11:00 am, and it was finally time for my hike. Berea has several great trails available. The most popular by far is the East Pinnacle, a 3.4-mile out-and-back trail that shares the same trailhead as the one I chose. If you’re from anywhere near the area, you’re guaranteed to have at least a couple of friends with profile pictures from the East Pinnacle overlook. 

I went on the Indian Fort Lookout trail instead, which is a 2-mile out-and-back trail. An additional mile and a half to get to a more crowded spot has never appealed to me, so I have generally gone to Indian Fort Lookout when I want a hike in Berea. I’m rethinking that policy now, since Indian Fort Lookout has nearly the same elevation gain as the East Pinnacle but in half the distance. It’s a deceptively steep trail. The extra mile and a half to get to the East Pinnacle seems more and more like the kinder option; by the time I realized that, it was too late to help my sore lungs and calves. 

My saving grace on the Indian Fort Lookout trail was that I went slower than my usual hiking speed. I’m not the fastest hiker anyways, but abundant stops to huff and puff gave me the chance to take in my surroundings a little more. You might not think it would, but filming the trail does that, as well – you can find the video on my YouTube channel. It had started as a rainy morning, so the trail was very quiet (except for the aforementioned huffing and puffing). The leaves on the ground were soaked, which meant I rarely got that good fall crunch, but I did get to hear the trees release a fresh rain shower whenever the wind went through. Several solitary crickets were chirping along the way to ask if it was just gray out or if it was getting dark, but they quieted themselves when I would round the bend. A bumblebee rode out the damp weather beneath a late-season wildflower. Some things you just don’t notice unless you pause and look. Sometimes it’s a good thing to have to pause and look. 

Even though it hadn’t rained heavily, the steady morning drizzle had made the few rock scrambles more treacherous. The rocky sections are part of the fun of that trail for me. Still, on that day, I was grateful that there were enough people around if something happened. Even though it’s less popular than the others that leave from the same trailhead, the Indian Fort Lookout trail is still a favorite of locals and students from the college. Noon on a Tuesday was no exception, and I appreciated that there were just enough around if I needed help but not too many to find some alone time out in nature.

The best part of the trail is of course the lookout at the end. You can see wide swaths of central Kentucky from its height, and a sweet little farm is nestled against the base of the cliff. On that day, full fall colors were just a few days away, but looking out across the forested hills made it feel like the kind of deep fall you only get in New England. Indian Fort Lookout is quiet enough that I had at least thirty minutes to myself up there. I brought my ground blanket and a thermos with my second latte from Native Bagel Co., so I took some time to sit, journal, and just soak in the view. I was glad I had brought another layer, including a beanie; it’s an exposed spot, and the wind was brisk. 

I was talking to a friend recently, marvelling at how much spending just a little bit of time in nature can reset you. Whenever I feel out of sorts or out of balance, I can find something beautiful to rest my eyes on. There’s a lot to say about the importance of vitamin D for balancing mood and full spectrum sunlight to combat seasonal affective disorder, but I’m not talking about just being out in the sun, although that certainly helps.

That day started out cloudy and drizzling, and even when the sun came out it shone weakly. Despite that, spending a couple of hours among rocks and the trees had the same effect for me. (I’m resisting making a cheesy comment about “vitamin trees,” and I want you to appreciate that. But really.) In Japan, there are “forest therapy” trails, because a connection with nature is just a thing we humans need. Luckily, any trail you have access to will do. 

Taking a morning off of work to go walk in the woods that Tuesday didn’t make my work go away. It in fact meant I worked a couple of late nights that week to meet my deadlines. What it did for me was give me a different perspective and a lighter heart. From that lookout point, the world seemed small; when I came back home, my stress was somehow smaller, too. 

I promise I don’t only go outside when I’m having a bad time, despite what ⅔ of my blog posts so far might indicate. I promise, too, that if you’re having a bad time, standing in a different spot for a bit can actually give you a different perspective, and resting your eyes on something beautiful can refresh you like nothing else. 

I think often of a line I read once in Florence Williams’ The Nature Fix (although I don’t have a very precise memory so I had to look up the wording and even double check it was the right book): “Distilling what I learned, I came up with a kind of ultrasimple coda: Go outside, often, sometimes in wild places. Bring friends or not. Breathe.” 

That’s as good of a rule to live by as any I’ve heard.