You see, my idea of camping or being outdoors is being clean and not letting bugs bite me. I guess in a sense, I am a little bit of a girlie girl. Now I will go hiking with my husband when he is on break from school because it is something he enjoys doing, part of being married is sometimes doing what the other one enjoys.
We usually enjoy doing the 4 - 6 mile hikes together, we always find nice views of beautiful trees, and our dogs love being able to get off their leashes and run wild smelling everything they can. Well this past week my husband had a brilliant idea (insert sarcasm here). He wanted to go hiking in the Sam Houston National Forest. We had been hiking before so it sounds fun right?
Now the hike that my husband wanted to go on was 14 MILES!
Yes you read that correct he wanted to go on a 14-mile hike. I had already agreed so no going back now. So we woke up at 6 am on a Saturday, no sleeping in for me. Now I am one of those girls that likes to look somewhat good while hiking. I have cute workout clothes on and matching vibram toeshoes. Once we got up and got everything in the car for the hike our journey began. This is what we looked like on our way all excited (mostly because I got my starbucks and he was finally taking our dogs on a long hiking)
Now when you go on a car ride with me it ALWAYS involves me singing songs and jamming out by myself. I am HUGE Journey lover, so Josh (my husband) put the Journey station on Pandora. I was singing to every song enjoying the hour and forty-five minute drive to the Forest.
We FINALLY arrive to our destination! I get out of the car ready to take on this 14-mile hike. The dogs are excited, running around smelling everything they can and so it had begun. The first couple of miles was mostly talking about our plans for this week and how happy the dogs were to be out of our apartment and in the wild what we were going to do for dinner, etc. Then it happens.. We had finally hit the 7-mile mark I let out a huge “YES!!!! We are half way there” sigh of relief. On we went hiking this 14-mile trail I start to think this is not so bad, I got this.
Then we hit mile number 10!
Mile 10 changed my outlook of the hike.. it became the hike from HELL. You see while I was walking this 14 miles somewhere along mile 10 I stepped on a root or rock, I am not sure what it was but I stepped on it wrong and sprained my ankle. I had a sharp shooting pain coming from my right foot every time I went to walk on it. Any amount of pressure on my right foot and the pain was there. I could no longer walk. I needed to finish this hike to prove to my husband that I could. So I started walking on my toes and hobbling the rest of the way! Those 4 miles where the hardest, full of switchbacks, water crossings, and uneven ground. Now I won’t lie and say I completed it all by myself, my husband did carry me over his shoulder up some hills because my foot just wasn’t going to make it. He encouraged me and told me that I am a strong woman and could finish this hike even with a hurt foot. I must say once we finished those 4 miles and I saw the car I could not wait to sit and put my foot up. It was so swollen and red, the dogs were exhausted. We all just wanted to go home. Once we got home we looked at my foot to find that I had bruised a muscle in my foot. So now I sit on my couch with my foot in and out of an ice bucket, and elevated trying to fix my foot. My husband calls me his little cripple now because I cannot walk! Small price to pay but spending time with my husband is priceless. Next time I will trade the vibrams in for hiking shoes!
