I don't hike. Nature scares me.
Sure, I appreciate it's beauty and all, however I also know how dangerous a simple day hike could be. I went on one at age fifteen with my dad, his girlfriend, my sister, cousin and a friend and it turned into a terrifying three day search and rescue for my dad's girlfriend and my young cousin. There was a freak early season snow storm and hundred mile an hour winds...it was the first story on the evening news, on the front page of the paper and they were not sure they would be found alive. Thankfully, they were okay, but spent months recovering from hypothermia.
Needless to say, I have barely gone out into nature since.
However, yesterday I was willing to fill a backpack with some supplies and wander down a trail (a whole half-mile away from our car) into the great open wilderness of a local regional park in order to see a grove of Redwood trees...
Honestly, I was still kind of (unreasonably) scared, but it was worth it. Since we live in the land of palm trees it was amazing to have a chance to stand in the dappled shade of actual trees. Maybe there is something to this whole hiking thing after all.
