I’m back! Hello, hello, and welcome to CallieHikes! I have not fallen off a cliff in the wilderness or gotten eaten by the mountain lion that was just recently spotted in Missouri. I am alive and I am ready to get back to writing, folks. This post will be very update-heavy, but toward the end, I will dive into some new changes that readers can expect moving forward. In my time away from Substack, I have been brainstorming some concepts I would like to implement and ways I can possibly help boost its growth. I really appreciate everyone who has subscribed and who remains interested in my writing about various outdoor adventures (or lack thereof). However, I would love to take this publication to the next level. It will be a process that might take a while, but I’m excited to have you here and I can’t wait to see where this goes.
What have I been up to?
So where have I been the last couple of months? My hopes for the summer were filled with dreams of section hiking the Ozark Trail. Yet, as life often goes, one thing after another led me to keep pushing the trip dates back week after week. The final nail in the coffin was when my dog Scooter was diagnosed with bladder cancer very suddenly. At sixteen years old, what did I expect to hear from the vet after Scooter had developed some peeing issues and seemed to lose the pep in his step? After getting a second opinion and some insanely priced tests done, it was uncovered that Scoter has a few other problems going on that make his situation rather bleak. For now, he is on several medications trying to make him as comfortable as possible and so far he is hanging in there. However, I know the end is coming for him.
As anyone could imagine, this hit me really hard. Besides my original summer trail plans being thrown out the window, getting this news was painful to take. So for the weeks leading up to the start of my first fall semester at a new college, I was a shell of a person. Throughout all of this, the steady rhythm of following my trail running half marathon plan was what kept me sane during this time (that and increasing my Starbucks addiction to two coffees per day).
Juggling classes with other student obligations while managing my own mental health and taking care of an elderly, dying dog at first was so depressing it was comical. Some days have felt okay while others have felt more like one existential crisis after another. All my therapy sessions have turned into morbid philosophy classes where I end up asking “what even is the point of any of this?” at least three times before the fifty minutes are up. Two months into this new routine and I have the motions down, but like most people in the education system, my motivation has tanked and I have lost my will to care.
On the bright side, my eating disorder recovery is at the best spot it’s ever been since leaving a treatment center in 2019. I also ran the FLATS trail half marathon in Kirksville, MO last weekend with a time of almost exactly three hours, which I am very proud of! Flights are booked and living arrangements have been made for the 25 miler (the Beast of the East) I have coming up this December at the end of the semester in North Carolina. I am incredibly stoked to run this course and can’t wait to see how I do then with all the training I have been putting in this year.
Where do we go from here?
Moving forward, I am going to change the schedule in which you can expect a post. I have realized that trying to set a solid deadline each week just ends up putting more pressure on myself to perform than I would like. So, I am trying a different approach! For now, I plan on publishing at least one post per month, especially while I am in the throws of college life. In between semesters, I will most likely increase the number of posts since I won’t be super bogged down with writing and reading intensive assignments. Plus, hopefully, I will also be able to do some exciting hiking things when not in school that I plan on documenting.
Also, I created an Instagram account! You can find me at @callie.hikes where I am able to be a little more active than I am on the Substack platform. Give me a follow if you want and tell all your outdoorsy friends.
More awesome things are in the works, so definitely please stay tuned and keep an eye out for cool stuff coming your way soon. I honestly have no idea how to properly promote my work. However, it has always been a dream of mine to live a more creative life and to possibly turn my writing into a successful side hustle. So be sure to follow along on this journey as I learn, grow, wade in vulnerability, and get comfortable with putting myself out there.
Thank you for reading and as always, see you out on the trail!