John M. Scalzi's Weekend Assignment #172: Under Your Own Power

Weekend Assignment #172: Talk about a time in which you moved or traveled a significant distance under your own power. That means walking, running, swimming, biking, hiking, and so on -- in some significant way your muscles were involved. As for the distances involved, think miles; we're talking some real effort. It doesn't have to be a marathon or a triathalon (although those would count), just a time when you got to the end of what you were doing feeling tired but possibly triumphant as well.

Dear John,

Did I ever tell you about the time I shepherded a gaggle of gawky teens up the Chimney Pond trail, over the Knife Edge of Katahdin and back down, all in one day, thirteen miles later, with no significant injuries (this time) or loss of personnel? I did? Damn!

OK, how about the time I took the same group of upstanding juvenile delinquents on a one-day, forced-march paddle down the Androscoggin River for 26 miles? Dang, I don't remember telling you about that ... but, if you say so.

How about the New Year's Eve I got stranded in Bangor at the end of a food co-op run to Boston and ended up having to walk the seven miles home in the middle of an ice storm because my then-roommate “got lucky” and decided to turn the phone ringer off so she and her beau-of-the-night could sleep in late the next morning? Oh, I did, eh?

Well, then, I've been on any number of shorter hikes and paddles here in New England and out in California and Washington. Nothing spectacularly physical, usually just hard slogs in heat or rampant cold. Nothing to write home about. I guess I've been blogging about the past too much.

Give my best to your two darlings and behave yourself. Have a fun Fourth of July holiday.

wil