If you’d like to try hiking, maybe don’t start with the Black Forest. Somehow two of good friends, Ana and Joshua, convinced me to go hiking with them over Easter weekend. I’ve never been hiking nor have an inclination for hills. But I’ve always thought I wanted to see the beautiful views you get with hiking so I agreed, warning them of our difference in abilities. They’re both experienced hikers and I wouldn’t understand until I was there that they’re addicted to it. I spent the majority of the weekend looking at their backs, complaining about how hard it was and how much my feet hurt. My feet hurt form the blisters that appeared day 1 despite my best effort to keep my feet dry and wear proper footwear. Being along the bottom of my toes, they made it difficult to walk. To add to my demise, I was sick. The sickest I’ve been on this trip. I was taking Mucinex, Tylenol, ibuprofen, and Sudafed at one point. I got a fever Thursday during the Enmodes presentation and was dreading the overnight Flixbus that night. I wanted to stay home and sleep and my mom supported me so I wouldn’t have to worry about the money I had spent. But I thought to myself, I can go and regret it and just have to take a bus back if I can’t handle it but be able to say I tried. Or I could not go and never know if I could do it or not. I wouldn’t know anything, and I think that’s more regretful. So, I decided to go and try to tough it out. Boy was it tough but I did it. During the day I didn’t feel sick, I think because all the medicine and the endorphin/adrenaline. At night, it was hard to sleep and it became harder to breathe during the day. This meant I could cop out on some hiking and my friends were very understanding. I took a bus a bit of the way two days before meeting back up with them and hiking the rest.
The hiking itself was a challenge. But my friends supported me and taught me to keep going, past what I thought was my limit. We started in Basel and ended in Freiburg. The first day was beautiful but ended up being longer than we planned for; 26 miles. By the end we were dragging our swollen feet but the hotel was our saving grace. They upgraded us to the best room I’ve stayed in in a long time. The beds were amazing and they let us order food right before the kitchen closed.
After a much-needed night of rest,
we were off to Todtnau. It was a 15-mile hike there but the first few miles beat
me down. We had a lot of elevation change today and on the highest peak we
climbed I almost lost it. I didn’t know how much longer I was going to be able
to do it until Joshua grabbed my bag and said get up, we’re going. I kept
pushing and Ana was encouraging until we made it up most of it before taking
our lunch break. Lunch consisted of snacks with Nutella sandwiches. I think I’m
good on Nutella for the foreseeable future…Later that day after about 10 miles,
I took a bus the rest of the way. Our hotel was nice again; the people were
extremely kind. Once Joshua and Ana made it to the hotel, we went out for
dinner. We each ordered a pasta dish and shared a pizza we were so hungry. With
full stomachs, we went to bed. The coughing kept me up at night and I had a 1500-word
paper due! My friends were understanding but still didn’t go easy on me, they
believed in me when I definitely didn’t.
Sunday, we rode the mountain coaster and hiked the Todtnau Wasserfall. The sights were amazing! Ana and Joshua hiked the tallest peak in the black forest (it still had snow) while I tried to get some rest. We repeated our dinner choice from the night before and called it a day.
For our fourth day, we had to make it to Freiburg by 11:30pm but it was only 15 miles so we slept in. I took a bus from the start and met up with them a few miles into the trail. Then, it was downhill for the rest of the way to the city. That was hard on our joints and feet but we made it! Seeing the sign for Freiburg was amazing. We even found an Italian restaurant to continue our eating trend. After, all we had to do was wait for our Flixbus. The black forest couldn’t let us leave without a final test. Our Flixbus ended up being 4 hours late. While this absolutely sucked and made us tired, we talked to some really interesting people until it came. Meeting new people, making wonderful memories with 2 of my best pals, and doing something I didn’t think I could do made the trip worth it. I was so grateful for my friends getting me through but more importantly, for listening to my complaining. By the end, I could see why they liked hiking so much. That said, don’t think I’ll be trying it again too soon. Definitely not before my blisters and feet recover. But it has made me want to visit the national parks back home, so I’m looking forward to the adventure!
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