For this week’s inquiry exploration I decided to go hiking. I had done a bunch of hikes at the beginning of last year, but since then hadn’t really gotten around to doing one. Without having a car, the only way of getting to a good hiking spot is either a decently long bus ride, or an even longer walk. With both of those challenges, I found myself often avoiding hiking even though it is something I love to do.

However, I reflected back on how I felt when I went hiking. I pictured the wildlife that surrounded the trails. The bugs, the trees, the waterfalls, and listening to the faint echo’s of other hikers on the trail. I remember the struggle of getting to the top, the sweat, the sore muscles, but then remembered the feeling when you hit the top of the mountain and how amazing that feels. Being able to look out of the valley and see how far you climb is always an accomplishment. With this in mind, I set a day, and went on a hike

While there are many hikes to do in Victoria, I decided to start small and hike Mount Douglas. I had done this hike before, but this time I wanted to focus on how I felt mentally when hiking and how and if it helped me at all. At first my anxiety was quite high. I was anxious about how long it would take me and if I would have enough time to bus back and complete my homework and other tasks in time. This continued for the first half of the hike and prevented me from focusing on the beautiful nature around me. After reaching the steepest part of the hike, I noticed that my anxiety had gone down. I was distracted by everything around me and also quickly noticing how out of shape I was. When reaching the top I was almost completely unaware of any anxieties I had previously been dealing with. I was so blown away by how far you could see. I felt so incredibly small compared to everything around me. It made me, not dismiss my problems, but realize that they were probably much smaller than I made them in my head.

Being able to step back from the busyness of life and go outdoors and do something like hiking was such a good experience for me. I needed that healthy challenge in my life and also needed to take some time off of school work to do something I really enjoy doing. While unfortunately this is not something that I can do every weekend, as it does take time and energy to get to where I need to be, I do hope to be able to set time at least once a month to do some sort of hike around Victoria. If you have any good hiking spot suggestions let me know!