Caught Off Guard, Gladly
Huntsville Didn’t Ask Permission
Mo said we should go for a hike, and just like that, we were heading into the hills above Huntsville, Utah. No lead-up. No transition period. Just a suggestion hanging in the air like a starting pistol.
I should mention that I’m autistic, which means sudden pivots like this take a few minutes to land properly. My brain needs a moment to file the paperwork. And I’ve also reached that particular chapter of adulthood where the calendar is thick with appointments, doctors, lawyers, dentists... a low-grade captivity that my younger self never saw coming and would have found absolutely horrifying. Spontaneity is not as easy as it once was.
But somewhere around the twenty-minute mark, something loosened. Not my enthusiasm for hiking, to be clear. Hiking is still a deliberate act of suffering dressed up in good shoes. What loosened was something else entirely.
Mo is the love of my life, and the hills around Huntsville turned out to be genuinely stunning, the kind of place that makes you forget you had opinions about being there. We spotted a garter snake crossing the trail like it owned the place, watched wildflowers tipping in the breeze, and took in views of snow-capped peaks that had no business being that beautiful in the middle of summer. That’s probably the truest measure of a good hike.
June 5th Goes the Distance
June 5th has a long history of showing up with something to prove, from Discovery Channel helicopters in 2003 to a grueling 24-hour solo race in 2011 and wildflower trails in Missoula two decades later. The thread running through it all is a simple question this date keeps asking: how far are you willing to go? Turns out the answer has always been a little farther than expected.
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