Been really busy lately, but hopefully I can get this post done.
Being a Boy Scout and later a Scout Master, hiking was something I always loved to do. I was a big outdoors fan and ever since Jeff was born we did a lot of outdoor activities.
I used to take Jeff hiking though out the years. When he was little I would take him hiking and tell him when he got tired enough that we needed to turn around and head back to the car to let me know. I would say “How far you hike out is how far you have to hike to get back, so don’t get too tired.” After he grew up that was not a problem. The problem was with me keeping up with him. He would literally run up the steep hills that I did good to get up holding onto the trees. (There’s some steep hills on that trail.)
It was a little chilly that morning when we started out. We had on jackets and gloves. It was clear and sunny and later in the day we lost the jackets. We took our time hiking the trail and being the photographer of the family Jeff took a lot of great photos. We had us a lunch in our packs and stopped along the way and ate lunch together. It was really nice. We spent a lot of time enjoying the scenery, almost too much. By the time we got to the end of the trail it was almost dark. We had such a great time that day.
It was hard for me to believe looking back that it was 10 years ago when we made this hike back in 2006. It doesn’t seem that long ago. I think he was 18 years old when we did it. We planned on doing more hikes but we just never made the time. The year after this we worked on our big haunted house putting it up and then taking it down. With his job schedule and mine we just never made it. In 2009 he moved to Atlanta. Between moving him and our work schedules we just didn’t get many outdoor activities in.
In 2014 I had a few surgeries and couldn’t do much that year. But Jeff and I had planned several activities for 2015 that we were going to make happen. We were going to make another hike in late fall or early winter. But sadly he didn’t live to go with me. It makes me so sad when I think about the stuff we talked about doing but let work and other things get in the way. It’s like we’ve got plenty of time, we’ll do it later.
We got to visit him and do stuff with him at his condo and around Atlanta, but we didn’t get out and do all the outdoor activities we liked to do when he was growing up. To me it’s like 10 years that could have been so much better if we just put forth the effort to make it happen. Don’t put off doing things with your family, there may not be a later to do it with them.
I did manage to get the camera and take some pictures of Jeff along the way. You can check them out in the Photo Gallery.