I am escaping tomorrow to go on a much-anticipated three-day camp trip to the interior. Weather outlook has turned from all cold and rainy, to at least two mostly sunny days that will be warmer than previously forecast. The occasion is a ten-year anniversary. I am highly looking forward to this outing.
When my husband and I got married, we were quite the explorers and enjoyed visiting new places, but a few years into our marriage we began to really get serious about becoming more fit: running, hiking, exploring the natural world. Both of us came from backgrounds where being outdoors was a way of life. He was born and raised in a ranch cabin outside Kamloops. His father worked on the ranch, and the life was pretty primitive. He and his sister and cousins had access to acres of trails, mountains, streams, and so on, and he has some great, funny stories to tell about wildlife, horses, and skiing. His aunt (who inspired him to start running) would take the kids camping and orienteering. I think this kind of upbringing turned my husband into a man of all trades–knowledgeable about the natural world and how to survive in it if needed, and good with his hands (woodworking, for instance)…but I think he’s just naturally wise and intelligent, learning anything he puts his mind to.
In my case, I was naturally inclined to run everywhere when younger. I’ve posted before about how I developed a heart disorder (SVT), which halted my running by the time I was a teenager–I did get an ablation that fixed it in 2012. But my youth was spent with a very active presence in the outside world. Our parents were always taking us hiking, running, camping, rafting, canoeing, even horseback riding. And normal activities like eating often turned into picnicking. We were encouraged to get outside all the time. If it was cold we often went cross-country skiing, sledding, tobogganing. On weekends we would head to the local park or, occasionally, to the state or natural parks and forests.
These kinds of backgrounds really simultaneously came back full-force with my husband and me a few years into our marriage. Before then we did plenty of outdoors hikes, anywhere from Turkey Run, which I recently blogged about, to hiking through volcanoes in Oahu to hikes in our local area. Getting into running in the last couple years has made outdoors trips a bit more intense, though really, I wouldn’t call either of us hardcore runners. I still run three times a week, usually 7-10 miles, sometimes more. My husband runs three times a week and has lately increased his distance to about 20 miles a week. This weekend’s camp trip will be great because we have no other responsibilities outside building cook fires, setting up the tent, and cooking. Outside of this relaxing time and swimming, we have time to do some longer runs, and there’s quite a few trails around. So we plan a longish run on Saturday and a hike on Sunday. I have a short run today (limited by work schedule), but I am really looking forward to tonight’s packing, camp planning, and the hopefully shortened work day tomorrow.
I can’t think of a better way to celebrate our 10-year marriage than by camping and running and hiking in the beautiful interior. It really says a lot about us, as a couple, and how we’ve grown together into preferring escape to nature over anywhere else: an inexpensive long weekend in the forested mountains, on a lake. Woot.
Here is the place we are going (image used with free copy attrition license and credited to Jon Rawlinson).
The place has a lake, and it is quite popular, but our particular campsite is out of the way from the general public and looks to be quite private.