A while back, after years of sitting in cubicles, coupled with more than a few pints at the pub and fish & chip takeaways, I found myself decidedly out of shape and resolved to take an 'active' vacation. I read a travel article on winter hiking in Europe, which included a description of the Ridgeway, just next door to London, which was home at the time. Billed as Britain’s “oldest road,” and used since prehistoric times, the Ridgeway is a designated National Trail running for nearly ninety miles southwest to northeast, west of London. The trail runs close to towns, allowing for lodging each night and train access at multiple points, including either terminus. Perfect, I thought, and I launched into planning a six-day hike.
As a diligent planner but rookie hiker, I consulted the national rail schedule, planned my waypoints, and packed winter layers, food, toiletries, and back-ups in my 70 liter rucksack. (A really big bag, the size of a small person when full, which it was.) The previous year, I had attempted the Three Peaks challenge as a charity event with the office (you try to climb the highest peaks in Scotland, England, and Wales in a 24-hour window), and I confidently redonned a double-layer of socks, laced up my hiking boots, and made my way to Paddington Station to head to the west end of the trail.
As a diligent planner but rookie hiker, I consulted the national rail schedule, planned my waypoints, and packed winter layers, food, toiletries, and back-ups in my 70 liter rucksack. (A really big bag, the size of a small person when full, which it was.) The previous year, I had attempted the Three Peaks challenge as a charity event with the office (you try to climb the highest peaks in Scotland, England, and Wales in a 24-hour window), and I confidently redonned a double-layer of socks, laced up my hiking boots, and made my way to Paddington Station to head to the west end of the trail.
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| The Ridgeway |
Three days and 45 miles later, my feet were a mess of blisters. My bag, full of daily changes of clothes, was a crushing weight. My boots and socks, which had handled going up and down mountains, failed at long-distance hiking. Though I wanted to finish the trail and its scenery, each footstep was sheer agony. So I left the trail early and returned by train to my flat to spend the rest of the week sitting on the sofa with my feet up, walking nowhere.
The next week I was back in the office, feet still smarting, when my coworkers asked: hey, this year we're going to do a continuous 100 km charity walk from London to the English Channel – do you want to join?
My internal reaction, given my abbreviated hike: no, that's crazy! But I gave it a go. In the process, I learned how to manage blisters, and that I quite enjoy long-distance hiking.
Now, several years later, I’m making a bigger decision than that failed Ridgeway attempt. I will be taking six months to try and hike the Pacific Crest Trail, or PCT, which runs for 2,650 miles in the western United States between the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico.
As with the Ridgeway, my focus is my health. As a professional, I have worked largely at one pace: full speed. I labored and studied in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest of the U.S., living out of hotels as an IT consultant and eating too much Jimmy John's as a graduate business student. Since then, I've worked across the globe in finance and accounting with a multinational corporation. All of these stints involved long hours with late nights and sometimes weekends and forgone vacations.
My personal approach to work has driven these hours as much as if not more than external demands. But, in recent years, my body has signaled to me that this pace is unsustainable. My energy levels have dipped, my temper and patience have shortened, and, most visibly, my skin has turned perpetually irritated. My body is reacting to the cumulative years of imbalance in a manner that one-week vacations no longer address. And so, much like that Ridgeway trip years ago, I am planning an 'active' break. This one is scheduled to last well beyond one week and will entail considerably more planning and hiking than that original 90-mile walk. My hope is that it will also be more successful.
People ask me about alternatives. What about changing my work style and pulling back, how about some more time at the gym, and what about pursuing conventional or alternative medicine for my skin? I imagine I will need to adopt some or all of these suggestions. But first, this unconventional treatment: step away from the office entirely, and hike as a tonic for the body and mind. I have the privilege and luxury of being able to pursue this approach; I do not have a family to support, and financially I can manage this period.
I should note that I am not quitting a loathed job. Rather, my career has been gratifying. With my current company, I have worked in New York, the United Kingdom, and now India. My assignments have had their ups and downs but have grown in complexity and responsibility, and I’ve experienced firsthand the 2008 financial crisis and the impacts of globalization.
Personally, I’ve been able to see some of the world. Across continents, I have met talented colleagues and friends, tasted a range of dishes, and suffered heartbreak. I fell under the spell of New York, and I still miss the energy of the city and the diversity of its offerings. As an American, my time in the UK and India has been one of discovery and challenge: global brands and trends may be increasing, but they haven’t overcome the imprint of local culture and identity. There are days in both countries where culture shock has hit me hard.
My time abroad has also transformed me into an avid fan of association football, soccer. Now I understand why, of all the sights, my college apartmentmate wanted to visit Arsenal’s stadium in London. Yes, it’s 22 players just kicking a ball, but I find football to be an incredible sport, and, unlike some other events, I find it consistently better to watch live than on television. When you see Robin Van Persie warm up in person, his acceleration is so much more apparent than on the screen. When you observe substitute Kosovare Asllani juggling with fierce concentration, alone on the pitch after the starters finished warm-ups, it’s no surprise that her introduction transforms the side in the second half, and you wonder why she didn’t start. I will be following Arsenal and the World Cup in Canada from the trail.
People have asked if I’ll be updating a webpage for my trip, and I’ve set up this blog to do so. Some comments:
The next week I was back in the office, feet still smarting, when my coworkers asked: hey, this year we're going to do a continuous 100 km charity walk from London to the English Channel – do you want to join?
My internal reaction, given my abbreviated hike: no, that's crazy! But I gave it a go. In the process, I learned how to manage blisters, and that I quite enjoy long-distance hiking.
Now, several years later, I’m making a bigger decision than that failed Ridgeway attempt. I will be taking six months to try and hike the Pacific Crest Trail, or PCT, which runs for 2,650 miles in the western United States between the U.S. borders with Canada and Mexico.
As with the Ridgeway, my focus is my health. As a professional, I have worked largely at one pace: full speed. I labored and studied in the Mid-Atlantic and Midwest of the U.S., living out of hotels as an IT consultant and eating too much Jimmy John's as a graduate business student. Since then, I've worked across the globe in finance and accounting with a multinational corporation. All of these stints involved long hours with late nights and sometimes weekends and forgone vacations.
My personal approach to work has driven these hours as much as if not more than external demands. But, in recent years, my body has signaled to me that this pace is unsustainable. My energy levels have dipped, my temper and patience have shortened, and, most visibly, my skin has turned perpetually irritated. My body is reacting to the cumulative years of imbalance in a manner that one-week vacations no longer address. And so, much like that Ridgeway trip years ago, I am planning an 'active' break. This one is scheduled to last well beyond one week and will entail considerably more planning and hiking than that original 90-mile walk. My hope is that it will also be more successful.
People ask me about alternatives. What about changing my work style and pulling back, how about some more time at the gym, and what about pursuing conventional or alternative medicine for my skin? I imagine I will need to adopt some or all of these suggestions. But first, this unconventional treatment: step away from the office entirely, and hike as a tonic for the body and mind. I have the privilege and luxury of being able to pursue this approach; I do not have a family to support, and financially I can manage this period.
I should note that I am not quitting a loathed job. Rather, my career has been gratifying. With my current company, I have worked in New York, the United Kingdom, and now India. My assignments have had their ups and downs but have grown in complexity and responsibility, and I’ve experienced firsthand the 2008 financial crisis and the impacts of globalization.
Personally, I’ve been able to see some of the world. Across continents, I have met talented colleagues and friends, tasted a range of dishes, and suffered heartbreak. I fell under the spell of New York, and I still miss the energy of the city and the diversity of its offerings. As an American, my time in the UK and India has been one of discovery and challenge: global brands and trends may be increasing, but they haven’t overcome the imprint of local culture and identity. There are days in both countries where culture shock has hit me hard.
My time abroad has also transformed me into an avid fan of association football, soccer. Now I understand why, of all the sights, my college apartmentmate wanted to visit Arsenal’s stadium in London. Yes, it’s 22 players just kicking a ball, but I find football to be an incredible sport, and, unlike some other events, I find it consistently better to watch live than on television. When you see Robin Van Persie warm up in person, his acceleration is so much more apparent than on the screen. When you observe substitute Kosovare Asllani juggling with fierce concentration, alone on the pitch after the starters finished warm-ups, it’s no surprise that her introduction transforms the side in the second half, and you wonder why she didn’t start. I will be following Arsenal and the World Cup in Canada from the trail.
People have asked if I’ll be updating a webpage for my trip, and I’ve set up this blog to do so. Some comments:
- I won’t be attempting daily updates. My trip objective is to take a break, not to create a new set of responsibilities to throw myself into. For blogging PCT thru-hikers, the weight they carry seems to include not only their gear, but also the expectations of near-daily blog posts. For those able to achieve this, I salute you, but I won’t be targeting this frequency.
- In terms of planning, gear, and resupply, I'll have some notes on this (and, with luck, post-hike debriefs), but I feel the basics and a good many specifics have been covered exhaustively and expertly by many of those who have gone before me. I’ll focus on what I think is useful to share, and may not go into all the details.
- Finally, and perhaps self-indulgently, I plan to use this blog for my organising and writing down my own thoughts. For any former colleagues following along, as with any personal website, there may be some discomfort in reconciling my posts with the coworker you’ve known. For my family and friends following my progress, I hope that you are able to know me better.
