Hello folks!

Hey folks! This is the first post on our Over The Hill Hiking website. 

Im so excited to be launching this site and connecting with people over fifty who want to get outdoors and unplug. We want to foster community and conversations that provide older hikers with information that can help them get on trail. We will talk about tons of topics from gear to how to deal with aches and pains. 

My name is Rebecca Stevens. I have been hiking about four years now and I was hooked from my first time out. There were several reasons I started hiking. 

I had began really feeling stress from life. Just the normal things. Always hustling, juggling, rushing. I had thought it would get better when our children were grown but other things just filled their place. I was still as busy as ever. Being a designer is code for super duper multi-tasker.  I would have my laptop and all the other “I things” processing at once. I look back now and wonder what was I thinking. My life was way too noisy. I needed quiet. 

I work at a The Orchard Church.  Our staff always encourages each other to take care of our spiritual health. I often fail to do that. Quiet time, study time and quality time with God is the first thing that gets cut when time starts pressing on me. 

Hiking puts me right in the middle of the His creation. I consider myself a creative, but as a designer and artist I can only imitate the Creator.  I walk through nature and consider God and who He is and who I am to him. It grounds me in the best way. It fosters a peace that quiets the outside noise. 

I look back to my twenties, the age of all hikers on tv, and my mindset then. Back then I don’t think I would have appreciated hiking the way I do know.  I would have been knocking out 20 mile days and conquering high peaks in fantastic go getter fashion I wouldn’t have slowed down enough to enjoy a cup of coffee and watch the sun rise. I don’t know that the sound of cool water running in a stream by my tent would have soothed me then the way it does now.  So maybe this is the best time in my life to be hiking. Maybe over the hill is where the best part of the journey lies.