I walked in hiking boots

 

For last weekend’s walk, I dug out the boots I bought many years ago for hiking the high country of Colorado and backcountry treks with brother Bill.

 

It was a great reunion with old friends from the closet.  Vasque Sundowners.  We have logged so many miles together, these boots and me.  This was a hike for boots.  Hills and valleys, inclines and declines, rocks and exposed roots, recent rain and mud.  A glorious trail through forests, fields, and bogs.  Not a hike for sneakers.

 

 

 

 

At mile 2 though, I found myself walking askew.  I checked the right boot to see if I had accumulated an extra layer of mud.  I hadn’t.  I checked the left boot to see what the matter might be.  There was no sole on that boot.  I had lost it at the edge of the last mud I had walked through.  My right boot was now taller than my left.

 

Now wearing only one and a half boots, I pressed on to Lobster Point.

 

Other parts and pieces of shoe construction came out along the way.  I didn’t want to leave any litter in the wilderness so I carried it all out.  At 3 miles, the sole came loose on the right boot.  I guess shoe-parts dry out over time.  I pressed on to Birch Point.

 

 

At 4 miles, the right sole came completely off.  Now at least I was level again.  It didn’t feel like I was walking across a constant hillside.

 

I walked out in hiking boots.  I walked back in moccasins; soft-soled leather topped moccasins.  Together, we made it back to the car.  My faithful friends, got me through one more hike.  Twenty plus years together, but now it’s time for them to retire.

 

Judy and I are not ones to casually give up on old things, but it is time to let them go.