Blogger’s Note: (Logo above courtesy of 52hikechallenge.com) I wrote this post, oh, probably three months ago.  I tried to start the challenge introduced in this post in October, but it was a fail. So was restarting my blogging at that time. But, we’re through the holidays and on to the lonnnnng haul of winter, where there’s nothing to do but wait for spring. (And hike!)

My life is a mess of halves right now. I have half-unpacked boxes stacked in corners and shoved into closets – even though I moved almost a month ago. There are half-written blog posts and half-edited pictures and videos littering my laptop. I have a half-eaten sandwich next to me. And don’t forget the half-dead mutt laying in the floor next to my desk because I’m ignoring her begging right now. Eventually, I’ll get my life together again. But until then, I’ll stop neglecting my blog.

Summer got a bit nuts there at the end. I wish I could say I took off on a grand adventure, or spent more time outside than on a computer but I don’t even have anything that awesome to talk about. I went back to work in the office for a few months for training, decided to move and had a blue million different birthday parties, wedding and baby showers, baby gender reveal parties, festivals, non-baby related parties, and oh-my-god I can’t even think of everything else that’s been going on. Nevertheless, it’s been crazy. I haven’t even hiked since the disaster that became my last foray into the wilderness. But more on that later.

Right now I want to focus on all the exciting things that are coming. Even though all the holiday festivities are getting ready to start, I’m starting a new project, because why not pile something else on my to do list? After all, as my friend Lacey loves to remind me, we can sleep when we’re dead. I add to that: While we live, we hike. Thus, my next endeavor: The 52 Hike Challenge.

It’s simple: Hike 52 times. The suggested method is once a week for a year, but there’s no hard and fast rule, no minimum requirements. Which is perfect for someone to can do a moderately easy five-mile hike one weekend and completely die on a two-mile hike the next weekend, a.k.a. someone like me with half-busted lungs.

The Challenge’s founders wanted to start something to give people a chance to decompress and get into nature. I was basically doing this earlier in the year, but without fanfare. I started the summer wanting to walk every day and hike every weekend, but heat (and self-pity, if I’m honest) stopped me for a couple of months this summer. I don’t know if it’s the break in the heat or just the seasons changing that has me finally coming out of this fog and ready to go. Maybe with this challenge, the next time I think about giving up, I’ll have a better reason to keep going.

So here we go. Boxes or no boxes, the second I find my backpack and hiking shoes, we’re off.

Fifty-two hikes to go.