I Re-hiked the First Hike I Ever Did.

A day hike in Stawamus Chief Provincial Park, BC, Canada.

I re-hiked (a part of) the trail that was the first serious hike I’ve ever done.

It’s the infamous Chief Peak trail in Stawamus Chief Provincial Park, in a town called Squamish between Whistler and Vancouver in Canada. Locals like myself just call it ‘The Chief’, as if some affectionate name for a First Nation tribe leader that I am sure they are not a part of. Most hikers who talk about having done ‘The Chief’ are white. In fact, most hikers in any English-speaking country are white, regardless of which trail they happen to be discussing… but that’s another story.

I went on my first serious hike when I was 21 years old. It was part of a social event, held by a hiking addict in my church young adult group. His obsession makes perfect sense to me now, but hiking seemed to me such a banal hobby back then. He would have never guessed that in five years, I would out-hike him by yearly mileage twice over! At that point, I didn’t even have enough outdoor knowledge to do a tick check after my hike, but a bug far more influential than a North American tick had bit me that hike…

I had been bitten by the hiking bug.