A friend recently asked me what my favorite hike is and I didn’t have a great answer. I could tell her what my favorite hike of a certain subset of hikes was, like if she was climbing the 4000-footers, but in general? I had no idea.
Even if you’re talking about the 4000-footers, I suppose the answer is: “It depends on what you’re looking for.” Because variables matter. It matters how long you’re willing to hike and how much time you have to explore. If you want something more accessible, you can’t go wrong with Jackson, Osceola or Pierce. If you’re willing to go on a longer adventure, it’s hard to beat the Bonds. Effort, time, and fitness are all critical inputs to determine the favorite of a certain kind of hike.
But I think the real reason why I struggled to give her an answer is because I don’t really have a favorite hike. I’ve put together some lists here on this site to flesh out some of the hikes I prefer, mostly to help me remember what I’d like to revisit, but that doesn’t really mean some hikes are way better than others. The truth of the matter is that I like them all. Well, pretty much. But even the hikes that didn’t go so well, or had terrible conditions, I still kind of liked. I enjoy the variety of experiences.
The real answer for my friend is that my favorite hike is a new hike. When I make a plan for a hike or a climb each week, I gravitate towards finding a new mountain or a new route. I’m not very much interested in treading a path I already treaded. My main interest is in exploring something I’ve never seen before. It’s very rare that I hike the same trail over and over again, unless it’s one of the small ones near my home where my dog and I try to get some exercise.
So now that I’m back in the shire, settling back into a writing/hiking/work routine, I’ll be searching for my new favorite hike of the week. And given the way the weather is looking, it’s probably going to be a rough one—a bit rainy, more than a little muddy, and really kind of gross. But I’ll be out, seeing something different, getting another chance to keep challenging myself, and that’s all I need. If I was going someplace I had been before, then maybe I’d wait for the ideal weather conditions to climb it, but because it’s going to be someplace new, I know that no matter how soaked and battered I might get, I’ll love every second of it. Well, probably.