Tag trekking

Top Ten Retirement Adventures: No. 5

Reg Spittle Leave a comment

Record-setting Appalachian Trail runner Jennifer Pharr Davis said it was her favorite trek in the world. “You can do it,” she told us about the Tour du Mont Blanc during her visit to Ashland, Oregon. We weren’t as certain, but after months of nervous debate, we jetted to France, played tourists in Paris and Strasbourg, then rode two trains to Chamonix, one of the world’s most popular winter sports cities.

It was July 2016. The Tour du Mont Blanc was our greatest challenge to date. The trail guided us from Chamonix around western Europe’s tallest mountain (15,766 feet) and its massif, counterclockwise, through France, Italy, and Switzerland. Although the TMB never climbed above 9,000 feet, it offered steep tests, sections of snow, and a blizzard that we barely avoided.

The Alps treated us to a grand show as we climbed nearly 30,000 feet and walked 110 miles over 10 days. We stayed several nights in rustic mountain huts, sharing drinks and meals with adventurers from all over Europe and even a few from America. At Rifugio Elisabetta, the tiny window in our bunk room revealed a glacier.

When we quit the working world in 2012, we longed for adventure, expecting to travel by planes, trains, and automobiles. Maybe a day hike here and there. We never, I mean never, would have dreamed (or had nightmares?) about such a foolhardy enterprise as the Tour du Mont Blanc.

Never assume.

Top Ten Retirement Adventures: No. 7

Reg Spittle 3 Comments

Nostalgia fills me when I think of my number seven retirement adventure. Within hours of arriving at our European destination in May 2014, the sale of our longtime Mariposa, California home became final. Our modest home on three forested acres held twenty-five years of memories, highlighted by the childhoods of our three sons, Andrew, Brad, and Chris. Yosemite National Park was our backyard.

Sue and I were homeless. Well, not exactly. We had packed our lives in a storage container awaiting our move to the quaint southern Oregon town of Ashland. Once we found a home there, that is. We would live in a rental condo in Ashland while we searched.

But first, we would walk a trail packed with more nostalgia and memory-making. One of Europe’s most popular trails, the West Highland Way, awaited our boots. In Scotland, which just happened to be our beloved home for a year while I worked there on a Fulbright teaching exchange. Our sons hadn’t reached double digits in life at the time and loved life in a tiny Fife village and school, where they were welcomed like celebrities.

Scotland has almost always been kind to us, and it continued in granting us mostly fair weather on our 150 miles from Glasgow to Loch Ness, except for one six-hour deluge that reminded us to never take Scotland for granted. The scenery was astounding, especially the Highlands, which thousands of sheep graciously shared with us.

After our trek, we had a blast with Scottish friends for a week, then traveled to Oxfordshire, England, and Copenhagen, Denmark to visit wonderful friends we had made on our first distance walk.

Adventure number six is next. Another trek, you ask? Good try, but nope.