Twelve states and one province in the past forty years. Metro parks. State parks. National parks. Wildlife refuges. All have witnessed my wife and me on hikes. I remember a long, long hike in the Dolly Sods area of West Virginia a few years ago that stretched the limits of our endurance. And I remember one of our favorites, through the Charles M. Russell National Wildlife Refuge in Montana.
But it is not the quantity of hikes we have enjoyed that is nearly as important as the quality. We do not hike for physical exercise, although we certainly derive physical benefits from hiking. We do not hike to check another hiking location off our list. We have no schedule of hiking we attempt to maintain. We hike because it allows each of us to pursue a certain activity to which we are devoted.
My wife has identified more than 200 species of birds which appear on her life list. From common birds, like robins, woodpeckers and yellow warblers to more rare species such as bald eagles, yellow-headed blackbirds and eared grebes, she has spotted them through her binoculars and recorded them in her book. Of course, to get to where the birds are, she has to hike. Almost always when she hikes to find birds, I am right along side her.
I have a collection of approximately 15,000 photographs, in 35mm slides, color negatives, and digital formats that I have taken with a variety of cameras I own. From common attractions like Niagara Falls, Washington, DC and Cincinnati, Ohio to more remote places like Seney National Wildlife Refuge in northern Michigan, Farragut State Park in Idaho and the aforementioned Russell NWR in Montana, I have pointed my camera, adjusted my lenses and pushed the button to record the image in chemicals or in pixels. Of course, to get to where the scenes are, I have to hike. Almost always as I hike, my wife is right along side me.
Ours is a perfect marriage of hobbies. She can point her binoculars at birds and I can point my camera at scenery. Where there is scenery for me, there are birds for her. Where there are birds for her, there is usually scenery for me.
Hiking in pursuit of our different hobbies has given us many hours of pleasure. We took our first hike together when we were in our twenties. Now we are in our sixties, and still hiking.
While hiking, we have also seen the darker side of nature. Forests blackened by lightning-ignited fires, carcases of dead creatures, sometimes partially eaten by other creatures, devastation from floods and the sometimes indelible and destructive footprint of man.
Our marriage is not built on hiking, of course. We have raised three children together, served in a variety of works and ministries together, enjoyed our eight grandchildren together and walked through our share of life's peaks and valleys. But hiking has always been our way of finding ourselves again, of leaving the challenges for an hour or so to simply walk in the beautiful creation of God that is this earth.
Hiking is, I suppose, a fitting illustration of life. We see the good and the bad, the beautiful and the ugly, the pleasant and the unpleasant, that which builds and that which destroys, the highs and lows, the thick forests teaming with life and the barren deserts where little grows. While hiking we discover ourselves, and we further cement the relationship between us that has defined us for the forty plus years of our marriage. In pursuing pileated woodpeckers and pixelated pictures we have formed an indissoluble union not only of our interests, but of our lives.
Photo: My wife, Linda, resting on a hike in Maryland's Cotoctin Mountain State Park.
