Through Hiking with Day Hikers

Life is a journey with people, no one treks the earth alone.  Some are through hikers, you, and those you will travel with from beginning to end, some, are day hikers we meet for a moment and then our paths diverge.  Day hiker personal relationships are strenuous.  We rarely share much in common except a brief spot of trial often marked “Difficult.”  Doing a difficult trail with through hikers is good because you are each encouraging the effort needed to push through, however with day hikers it is never so easy.  You don’t have a long-haul relationship in common, you only have to hike together for a short period so the gift of comradery is often not a part of your relationship.  But the trail remains and the wise hikers, the true hiker, the through hiker, know all partnerships are valuable if seen as valuable.  They do not seek encouragement as much as they seek to encourage.  Helping others to love the hike is encouraging enough for the through hiker.  Hiking is the point, the trail through the earth, and being on it with anyone can always be made better if one chooses, often choosing even when the trail is made a little more difficult.