An Unexpected Passion

Reg Spittle

How did I get to this point in my life, more than 12 years after I left the working world?

Today, I share with you these words from carryoncouple.com, where my wife Sue traces our journey:

The headlines jump out at us daily — Find your passion…Create a more purposeful and fulfilling life.

Passion is such a strong, emotional word. Does everyone have a passion? What if I can’t find mine? Will I be happy if I’m not passionate about something…anything?

Reg and I have never dwelled on finding answers to these questions. We set goals, make plans and often make decisions as life’s pathways unfold before us. But then something interesting happened…

In 2013, not long after we had both retired, Reg and I walked Spain’s Camino de Santiago. Neither of us walked with expectations. We weren’t searching for healing or peace or direction. I just knew that we needed to do it. Reg wasn’t so sure, and may have been the most reluctant pilgrim on the Camino that year, but my stubborn enthusiasm opened a new world of interests and travel opportunities for us.

Passion had found us!


Since that fateful walk through Spain, we have become passionate about long distance walking, exploring some of the world’s most beautiful treks. I keep our carryoncouple blog up-to-date, sharing bits and pieces of our travels. We both started additional blogs; Reg posts book reviews and I share my favorite photos. Reg became serious about writing, publishing three separate books detailing our adventures. I’ve designed maps for his books as well as the covers.

Reg recently released his third book, (here’s a link) Hoofin’ It On The John Muir Trail, an adventure memoir recounting our 30-day trek through California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. This, along with his other two books, are available at Amazon.com.

In April we will set off on a couple new trekking adventures. One through Italy on the Via Francigena and another shorter walk on England’s Cotswolds Way. I hope you’ll follow along.

10 thoughts on “An Unexpected Passion”

  1. Can’t think of anything more rewarding than following your passion while hiking down a trail (including four trips over the John Muir Trail.) At 81 and 74 Peggy are still out hiking and loving it. It keeps us young, or at least younger. Grin. –Curt

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    1. So true, Curt. You and Peggy inspire us…four JMTs! It is my favorite trail, but, please, don’t tell the others that I feel that way. I rarely am aware of my age on the trail. Just a number. And you also live in Oregon?

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      1. I did Reg. Peggy and I lived on the Upper Applegate River about 30 miles east of Medford on five acres that fronted on the river and backed up to national forest. It was (and is) a beautiful location. Hard to beat the views and wildlife that wandered through our property, but on turning 80 I decided it was time to move east to where our kids live in Virginia. We call it Basecamp and are only there about three months out of the year as we wander the rest of the time. Grin. We’re in Hawaii now for a month and will be heading to the Southwest in March for five months, Our daughter, Tasha, says, “I thought you moving out here, Mom.” I forget, Reg, do you live in Oregon and where?

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      2. Hi Curt,
        I can understand wanting to give up the land and maintenance. We live in Ashland. Between travel with our trailer and trekking, we are gone often, although not as much as you two are. We almost moved to Williamsburg in 2022, but our buyer backed out on the last possible day and we decided to stay put. We like Virginia very much.
        We just got hit by more than two feet of snow…it has been a freezing winter, so Hawaii sounds fantastic! Keep on going for it!

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      3. I’ll bet that getting over the Siskiyou Summit would have been a challenge, Reg. That’s a lot of snow for Ashland! Up where we lived about a mile from Applegate Lake for 12 years, I can only remember one time we had that much. Too bad we aren’t still in the area, it would have been fun to get together and swap tales. There’s a great campground down near Williamsburg that Peggy and I like.

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  2. As I ordered the book and it is here on my shelf, I just need time to read it. As you know I also write about my Camino adventures. I think like you, Sue, we need to have a passion and when we find it, it gives us so much joy and a purpose to live each day to the fullest. I am also looking forward to a walk on a Camino this fall. I will certainly share the news and some photos on my blogs. Congratulations for your team work, for enjoying exciting life adventures and sharing them with us.

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