Gone hiking

Every year, for the last 10 years, my friends and former colleagues Susan Campbell and Melissa Pionzio and I have taken to the woods.

It’s our time to leave behind all obligations and deadlines and must-do’s and just take off. Melissa uses a backpack so small and yet so mysteriously accommodating that we’ve nicknamed it the clown car backpack. My weight to pack ratio is always off, which is why one year I fell backwards and earned the trail name Turtle. (I’d share their trail names, but I’ve been sworn to secrecy.) Susan packs snacks, lots and lots of snacks, and we thank her. (Read her take on our hikes here.)

We started this yearly tradition when we all worked for the Hartford Courant newspaper in Connecticut. A lot has changed since our first hike. Just in the last year, both Susan and I left the paper. I moved to Philadelphia. Melissa left shortly before us to help run her family business.

With all the changes in our lives, I wondered if we’d still hike. And here we are.

We’re hiking later in the season than we usually do. And instead of hiking somewhere in New England, we’re going to climb the Pinnacle in Pennsylvania. But we’re going — because no matter how many things change, some things just shouldn’t.

See you next week sometime.