Chasing Hadrian... a Year Later
Setting back out into the hills of the UK, looking for....
It wasn’t too long ago that some of my friends suggested that I set up a new website, called the Windelspectrum (a clever play on my name, or that’s what I had hoped), for the purpose of, in their minds, putting all of my activities as an author, scientist, teacher, and wanderer into perspective. Yeah, that project is still in work.
Later, these same people suggested that I form a new SubStack to reach like-minded people and explore creative writing possibilities. This sounded like a very good idea. However, as I looked out at what others were doing, there seemed to be a lot of organization and thought behind their first posts, with direction and purpose being a theme. Lots of really good stuff.
Well, that is definitely not what you are going to experience here. I’d thought about starting with a deep philosophical piece about my thoughts on the meaning of life, my experiences, the importance of science in today’s world, and my advice to those that followed me as to how to live a better life.
And that not only created a tremendous amount of anxiety (what if I get it wrong?, what if people actually…. listen?), but also bored me to death. I’m not a self-help guru, I just want to tell fun stories that make people think.
So, I’m going to start my stack with today since today seems like a really good place to begin. Today I am just 24 hours away from starting a solo hike along St. Cuthbert’s Way in Scotland. This isn’t just some crazy last-minute adventure, it is actually my 8th long ways hike, and second long distance solo hike. So this is more of a long-term insanity issue.
Why start with a hiking post? Last year I decided to challenge myself and do something to completely step outside of my comfort zone. I had just turned 60 and although I had already done several of these long hikes - I wanted to see if I could do one myself. So I worked with our long time partners, Macs AdVentures, to design a challenging, but achievable solo hike that had a historical component. The result was the Hadrians Wall Path hike
And yes, obviously, I made it. One important note - never walk East to West in England in April (more on this at a later date).
You can listen to our Long Ways episode on this below:
There is a lot to be said about these types of life challenges, and tomorrow I’m setting out on yet another - and this time I’m not chasing an emperor, but rather a saint. My plan is to kick off my stack with some posts from the trail. If you like them, consider checking out our podcast below for more of my adventures.
While my posts will not only be about hiking, they will be about curiosity, exploration, and being an observer to the world we live in. You can expect to hear stories about jaguars, storks, misadventures on the trail, and some of the interesting people I’ve met on this journey. I’m enjoying the thought of the process, and encourage you to not only share your experiences with me, but also offer suggestions on how I can evolve this stack over time.
Next stop…. Scotland