I’m Charlotte and this is The Uphill Struggler, a blog about struggling uphill (literally and metaphorically).
You’ll enjoy it if, like me, your imagination fancies you a fearless explorer of the wilderness but your body prefers to think of you as a slowly inflating receptacle for storing beer and refined carbohydrates that needs to be kept dry and warm at all times. You’ll also enjoy it if you are a fearless explorer and you like lording it over those with inferior levels of fitness.
Growing up in the Devon countryside I had always loved the outdoors, but it wasn’t until 2016 that I started to take hiking more seriously and realised it was a good way to be mindful and take exercise at the same time. Since then, often with my long-suffering hiking partner in tow, I have climbed mountains in Wales, England and Scotland, got lost in Laurie Lee country, swum in rivers, lakes and lochs, tandem mountain-biked through the forests of Yorkshire, and consumed my weight in Nature Valley bars (but that’s OK when you’re dripping sweat after summiting a mountain, yes?).
My love for hiking snowballed and, in February 2018, I decided to set up a hiking group for women in my home city of Bristol. We regularly go on group outings to Wales and the South West so no-one has to walk alone if they don’t want to (we aren’t all Cheryl Strayed, you know).
But before you start thinking I’m some kind of hiking pro now (I know no-one’s thinking that…) I have a confession to make: I am still an uphill struggler.
But the more I hike, the more I realise how much hiking is a metaphor for life. You plan, you prepare … but those hills and dales are never what you expect. They are breathtaking, depressing, exhilarating, terrifying. You feel like a small but not insignificant part of something much bigger than yourself. And it’s the people you hike with who make the good parts more special. We help each other up there, through the sweat and the tears and the blisters. And when we get to the top of a mountain, or reach a beautiful waterfall, we feel a glow of achievement that cannot be rivalled. It really is a wonderful thing.
So do read on if you love hiking. Or you like looking at pretty pictures of the UK countryside. Or if you love a bit of Schadenfreude. Because, there will be tears, there will be blisters and, by God, there will be Kendal Mint Cake.
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The Uphill Struggler is now featured in The Great Outdoors Blogger Network:
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