212: Taking the Leap: What a Hut-to-Hut Trek in Sweden Taught Me About Outdoor Classrooms & Community

Today, I wanna tell you a story, and it's a story about taking a leap.

For me, that leap was very literal.

I traveled to Sweden this summer to do a hut-to-hut trek, and I wanna make that distinction because when I say I went to Sweden, you might picture a vacation.

It was a vacation, but you might picture hotels and sightseeing and restaurants and wandering around a beautiful city.

And while Sweden certainly is beautiful, that's not what this trip was about for me.

I went on a trek.

I was moving through the landscape from hut to hut, carrying what I needed and knowing that each day I had somewhere new to reach.

And there was something about that experience that has stayed with me.

Actually, there's a lot of things about it that has stayed with me, the physical experience, the landscape, the uncertainty, the preparation, the simplicity of knowing that your job for the day is essentially to put one foot in front of the other.

The moments when you look ahead and think, "We're going there?" [laughs] I mean, it was miles and it was beautiful, but it was miles and miles and miles of paths and hills, and it was incredible.

But the moments that you look behind you and realize, "Wait, I came from there?" And of course, the people.

The people you're walking with, the people you encounter along the way, the conversations, the encouragement, the experience of doing something individually while also being a part of something bigger than yourself.

Since I've been home, I've found myself thinking about that trek in connection with the work that we do here at Outdoor Classrooms, and I've been so curious about what this ripple effect is gonna be, and I think it's coming slowly.

And I've been thinking about it in connection also with our Circle community, because I think there's something really interesting about taking a trek like that.

You can prepare for it.

You can research it.

You can buy the equipment.

You can look at the map.

You can talk to the people who have done it.

You can think about what you're going to bring, which I did a lot of.

[laughs] And you can try to anticipate what might happen, which I also did.

I did mindfulness exercises.

I read the itinerary about 100 times.

But eventually, you have to start walking, and isn't that true of so many things? At some point, preparation has become participation.

At some point, thinking about it has become doing it.