If you had met me in high school, you would have known me as a city girl. I certainly wasn't a "girly girl" (I've only ever had one manicure in my life), but I definitely preferred my creature comforts. A vehicle to get my from my parents' garage to the nearest mall, hot food on the table at meal times, cozy flannel sheets, and a good book - such was the stuff of life!
When I went off to college, I was nervous about meeting new friends, so I had signed up for a pre-freshman year orientation trip. Depending on space, enrollees would be assigned to a Habitat for Humanity-type building trip, a canoeing trip, or a backpacking trip. The Habitat trip was clearly at the top of my list, because it was the only option that involved some semblance of civilization, even if "civilization" meant saying on a cot in a gymnasium and using communal showers. Meanwhile, the canoeing trip was clearly at the bottom of my list, due to my genetically endowed lack of any upper body strength whatsoever. Backpacking? Meh. I could take it or leave it, I thought.
When the assignments came a few weeks later, I was ambivalent about being assigned to my middle choice. Huh. Backpacking, I thought. How hard can it be? My parents had taken me camping a lot as a kid and I liked going for walks on our neighborhood paths, so I figured I would be good to go.
Of course, for anyone who has actually been backpacking, you realize immediately that there is a world of difference between a pop-up camper and actually carrying a tent on your back. Here I had thought I had been roughing it as a kid with our 3" mattresses and flush toilets all the way over at the center of the campground. I was completely unprepared for the realities of true "leave no trace" principles, such as our group of 12 women having to finish off ALL of the refried beans (a portion clearly intended for a whole football team of hungry men) from our burrito night dinner, else the bears would smell our food and come after us. Well, let's just say that the bears smelled us all right, and they left us alone! And let's also mention that meandering strolls on the neighborhood paths is nothin' compared to hiking up and down hills with what feels like three elephants strapped to your back, particularly when wearing Doc Martens (it was the 90's...) as "hiking boots."
There were multiple times during this trip that I contemplated jumping off a cliff so a helicopter could come rescue me from my misery.
As a result, once I got out of those god-forsaken woods, I swore I would never look back. Zoos, city parks, and a pet cat would be all the "nature" I would need in my future. And that's exactly what I did. At least, until a few years after my husband and I were married....
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