trachle
or trau·chle
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Jeff had no idea that walking could be so exhausting. Just walking. Not even a fast walk. And yet, his feet felt like lead and sweat covered every inch of his body. The other members of the group were better off, but not by much. All of them were hot, sticky, and tired. Why they all kept going, he could not even begin to understand.
“Hey, can we break for a bit?” Jeff called. A chorus of agreement greeted him.
They moved off the trail, and every single one of them flopped onto the ground. Jeff did not even care that he was sitting on a small rock. He was just glad to be off his feet. Several members just lay down in the grass, while others gulped down as much water as they could.
“Hey, whose idea was this again?”
Jeff did not bother turning to face the speaker. It was one of the guys though. Probably Chris.
“It’s the Appalachian Trail.” Came the reply. One of the women this time. Sue, maybe? “We gotta do it at least once, you know?”
“Yeah, but did we have to agree to do the whole thing?”
This time there was no reply. Jeff could understand that. It had seemed so easy on paper, after all. Sure the distance was long, but they had all spring and summer to do it, so there was no rush. They figured they would get out, walk around and see the beauty of nature. They thought it would be fun. Easy even. And even if they had trouble with something, there would be other hikers, and the trail even went through towns sometimes.
None of them were ready for the reality of the hike. The long, mountainous hike. Jeff, in particular, and thought this was going to be a cakewalk, and had done almost no actual training to prepare for it. Now he was paying for it with blisters on his blisters.
“I say we make it to the next town, find out where the nearest airport is, and go home.” Jeff said. “We made it pretty far, right? We get credit for that.”
There was some half-hearted agreement. He knew some of them were completionists and would not be satisfied with a half-finished hike. He could care less. He had some good pictures and some nice videos to show off. That was good enough for him.
“Come on, we’re more than halfway through.” Sue said. “We’ve made it this far, we can definitely finish, right?”
There was some agreement with that. It was even weaker than with Jeff’s idea though.
“Okay, look,” she continued. “We’re all tired, there’s no doubt about that. How about we rest here for a few hours before we keep going. This isn’t a good campsite anyway. Once we make camp and have had some dinner, we can talk about it there. Maybe even tomorrow before we get started. You know, sleep on it and have a discussion when we aren’t all worn out.”
There was a lot of muttering about the idea of future discussion. Much of it was about the idea that they could be anywhere near well rested after one night. But at the same time, nobody wanted an in-depth discussion or planning session at that moment. And so the decision was made. Two or three hours of rest, then more hiking. Jeff did not think that was enough, but he would find a way to make do. Until then, he just lay back and did his best to commune with nature.
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There's no chance I would even hike the full length of the Appalachian Trail. I would never make it even to the half way point. I'm just not built for that kind of endurance. At least, not without putting way more effort than I'm willing to give into it. Maybe a small section someday, but probably not.
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