Friends Don't Let Friends Hike 20 Miles: a Conveniently Pulled Muscle

I live in the woods but am not really an outdoorsy girl by nature - a play on words! 

I have hiked multiple times and camped outside with my children’s Cub Scout pack,

but this was not my first choice of activities. 


So a few years ago, a group of friends decided to plan a camping trip  - hike ten miles

and then sleep in a tent and then hike ten miles back. Luckily one of the husbands was

dropping off the equipment at the campsite, so all we really had to do was carry minor

things for the ten miles. 


I don’t know what I was thinking.  I run five miles regularly so I thought hiking ten miles

would be easy, especially with friends.  That was a ridiculously long walk even with

fabulous company.  The last few miles I pulled a muscle in my calf.  Not too bad, but that

even lessened my desire to hike ten miles back to the cars in the morning.  And I previously

had no idea what walking poles are really for.  I absolutely found out.  Gravity starts to work

on your hands when they are down by your side for hours.  They start to swell.  The walking

poles keep your hands up so there is no swelling.  I had no walking poles, but I had lovely swelling hands.


Luckily we all weren’t die-hard campers - someone had left us a car and we were going to an

outside restaurant for dinner. Before we left to go back to camp, I got a brilliant idea.  We could

stop at my car on the ride back to the campsite, and I would drive there and drive home in the

morning.  I did have a PULLED MUSCLE!  No one should hike ten miles with a hurt leg!  Yay

for the muscle pull!


At times when walking around camp it genuinely did bother me, and I would limp slightly. 

At other times, it was fine, and I played it up.  I didn’t want everyone to think I was a big wuss. 

I was hurt.  


Should I have hiked back?  Probably not ten miles. 

Was it a bad pull?  Not really. 

Am I a good actress?  Absolutely not. 

Who knows what they really thought? That I was a big wuss.


I saw this Baby Yoda meme today, and it immediately brought me back to this trip.    Stand my

ground I did, and I drove back home the next morning.  That “pulled” muscle couldn’t have come

at a better time. 





Lesson learned:  Think hard about invitations offered to you, or, alternately, friends don’t let

non-outdoorsy friends hike 20 miles and camp in the woods.

Comments

  1. Mrs. ZimmermanMarch 23, 2021 at 1:55 PM

    I don't know why but the lines in your post stretched really long on my desk top. So weird.

    But I was able to catch most of your post. AND ugh, an injury when hiking- not good. I loved your meme with it!

    ReplyDelete

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