What’s a girl to do?

Not-Quite-A-Cave is the most exclusive lunch spot in Indiana!

So. My first trip this year got cancelled the night before we were supposed to leave for Argentina. My next vacation, to Spain in December (purchased in advance of COVID-19), has already been cancelled.

So what’s a travelling girl to do when she can’t travel?

My solution, at least, is this: HIKE.

I’ve lived in Indiana for a year now but haven’t seen much of it, so I started looking up hiking trails around the state and discovered the Knobstone Trail, aka “The Little Appalachian Trail”. It’s either 48 or 60 miles long, depending on which website you visit. I’ve spent a month of Saturdays out hiking the trail now, getting from Deem Lake nearly 10 miles up to Pixley Knob Trailhead by hiking out and back to my car over the course of the day—so technically when I finish I’ll have hiked the trail TWICE!

I hit 20 miles in 2020!

This is literally the most exciting thing to happen this year.

Some sections are relatively flat, others have sharp inclines and declines. I’ve found an abundance of mushrooms, learned how to purify my own water while hiking, and met a cute puppy named Otis! I’ve gotten lost and had to retrace my steps. I’ve followed a “trail” that was, in fact, a maintenance road. I’ve climbed over and under fallen trees. I’ve taken shelter from the rain and sun in rough limestone carve-outs that can’t rightly be called “caves”. And there’s the 2020 metaphor for you. No matter what you run in to, there’s a way around it, through it, over it.

It may be a miserable, uphill slog sometimes, but if you just keep hiking, we’ll eventually all get through it!