It all began...

Last summer I was invited to go on a Wilderness Trip: backpacking for 4 days and 3 nights in an undisclosed location in the Rocky Mountains — something I’d never done before. I LOVE being outside, being active and trying new things. I signed up as soon as I could rope my husband (who loves his bed, his pillow and his morning coffee) into going with me.

The week before the trip, he found out he had a business trip that coincided with our first day of hiking and camping. Right around that time, the reality began to dawn on me: I was one of only two women on the trip (the other was a guide!), I was one of the oldest people going, I would be relieving myself in the woods and using leaves for toilet paper, I would be carrying at least 50 pounds of supplies on my back (none of which included makeup or any hair help other than a hat) — and all that without my husband as my one piece of comfort and security. I began to consider ditching the whole thing. How badly did I want to put myself through probable hell and why?

Apparently pretty badly and because it could be the coolest thing ever!

It was.

Although the guides worked out a way my husband could join us the next day (resulting in, for him, two back-to-back tough climbs after a late flight and very little sleep), I had already consented to power through the thing on my own, if necessary. I felt I was being “called” to the wilderness and I owed it to myself to buck up and go — with or without my security blanket. I couldn’t pinpoint exactly why, other than to see what I was made of, and to experience some real solitude.

I got both of those in spades and so much more. I learned more about myself (physically, mentally, spiritually and socially) in that 4 days than I could have ever imagined. I was smack-dab in the midst of a very difficult season with my extended family — the likes of which I’d never experienced before and which shook me to the core. Processing out in nature on my own and with a bunch of strangers while also testing my limits physically and receiving the payoff of untouched, pristine natural beauty felt like a prescription for peace.

Yes, there were mosquitoes. Yes, I got altitude sickness and prayed to die. Yes, my hip was rubbed raw from an ill-fitting backpack. Yes, I “went” in the forest (even dug the communal hole a few times), allowed myself to look truly terrible “au naturel,” and was covered in grime and sweat by the time we returned.

But also… I absorbed the wonderment of a huge dark blanket of sky pricked by thousands of Lite Brite stars falling down on me in utter stillness. I witness red-tinged, slippery, oblivious fish darting around in their crystalline playground. I waded into bitingly cold waters both physically and metaphorically as I told my “story” and was invited into those of every individual on the trip. I let the best cup of coffee I’ve ever had (all grainy, black, and from my dirty tin mug) warm me all the way down atop an 11,000 foot peak where I could see for miles while the sun simultaneously warmed my face. I felt God’s presence and heard his voice tell me things I’d longed to hear. I let go of inhibitions, vanity, control and the need for information and learned the bliss of going with the flow.

Thus was born the deep desire to pass this on. To invite every woman I know to stretch her limits, to get out of her comfort zone, to try something new to discover who she is, how she feels, what she might think, taste, touch, see, smell and hear.

Adventure is calling. Answer “yes” with me and together we’ll find more hidden treasure — in ourselves and in this big, beautiful world.