Good for you!

I met a guy like you a few years ago when I was backpacking on a trail near the Buffalo River. He was doing a day hike. He said he had drove down to Arkansas from Wisconsin to hike around for a week or two and his goal was to hike the entire Buffalo River Trail, a little at a time.

He was there by himself, said his wife didn't care to go with him, but didn't mind that he took off for a week here and there, and then he said just about exactly the same things you've said in your post (except he was 60). He told me he had already hiked about 30 miles of the trail over the course of a year, and I can't remember how much weight he'd lost, or how much he wanted yet to lose, but he hiked with me for about a mile and kept on going after I got to my car.

It was cold and windy and cloudy that day and as I watched him hike away I had to believe he'd taken back his life because he was as happy as any man I've ever met on the trails I've hiked.

My dad used to tell me, "The only thing stopping you is the fear in your heart and the lead in your a##". That still motivates me <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Bill