365 miles in 12 months. On foot. On a trail of some kind (not neighborhood sidewalks or the mall). “The Hiker’s 365,” it’s called, and was the first My Adventure Challenge we signed up for.
Initially, we launched this challenge in November 2021 with the goal of completing it one year later. To reach the goal, of course, you need to average hiking 7 miles a week. A piece of cake most of the year, but a bit more difficult December through February in northwestern Illinois—at least for us.
To compensate for the low winter weeks, we planned a couple of more extensive hikes in 2022. Several day hikes on the Lake Superior north shore would cover a few weeks. We also intended to hike the 42-mile Pictured Rocks Trail in northern Michigan.
Planned. Intended.
Alas, didn’t happen. A knee injury in the Spring sidelined Chris from any serious, stressful hiking for several months.
So, The Hiker’s 365 got postponed a year—we restarted it in late October.
The My Adventure Challenge site offers several other challenges, though.
To achieve the “Spring Fling Trail Challenge” requires covering 75 miles in the Spring months of March through May. More about this later.
The “Blazin’ Summer Trail Challenge” requires hiking 65 miles on a minimum of six different trails between June 1 and August 31.
The “Fall 50 Challenge” requires completing 50 miles in two months—either in September-October or October-November.
To complete the “Winter 100 Challenge,” you have from November through February to hike 100 miles. That’s one I should sign up for to motivate me to get outside on those cold winter days!
To claim “The Ultimate Adventurer” patch demands completing the four seasonal challenges plus The Hiker’s 365. By the way, the miles earned in the seasonal hikes also apply to The Hiker’s 365 (if completed in the same year), but they don’t all have to be completed within 12 months.
There’s more!
The “Waterfall Chaser Challenge” sounds fun. You need to take photos of at least ten different waterfalls in 90 days. No problem for those living in New England or the Southeast. Might be tough in Kansas.
For kayakers or canoers, there’s the “Paddle 90 in 90 Challenge.” Sort of speaks for itself. Having neither a kayak or a canoe, this one holds no interest for me.
Then there’s the “Bike 1000 Challenge.” You have 180 days to log 1000 miles on a bicycle (not a motorcycle!). Interestingly, the challenge doesn’t disqualify e-bikes…seems to me it should, I guess because I don’t have one. Somehow, mostly riding and minimally pedaling doesn’t look like much of a challenge. Well, that’s just my opinion, for what it’s worth.
Anyway, we rebooted The Hiker’s 365 in late October, and in late February, we signed up for the Spring Fling Trail Challenge. On March 4, we logged the first of 18 hikes—8 miles on the Hennepin Feeder Canal Trail near our home. By the end of March, we were a bit behind, covering just shy of 21 miles.
Made up for it in April, though, ending with a two-month total of 50.9 miles.
All of our hikes in May were relatively short—under 5 miles. But on my birthday, May 27, we logged a 2 ¼ mile hike that brought our total to 76.2 miles!
Made it with four days to spare!
When you sign up for one of these challenges, you get a special patch; for an additional $15, you can get the t-shirt. That’s all well and good, but what you really want is what comes when the challenge has been completed.
Once you email a copy of the completed log of your hikes, My Adventure Challenge promises to plant a tree somewhere and send you a certificate of completion. Comes in an email, and if you want to frame it (?), has to be printed. I did print it, but framing seems a little much!
In reality, the certificate is no big deal. Just an email attachment and maybe a piece of paper. But it’s an “attaboy” thing. A “good job!”…”way to go!”…”you did it!” that gives a sense of satisfaction and fulfillment.
And that serves as a motivating factor through those months and on those hikes when conditions are less than ideal. Not the piece of paper per se, but the “well done!”
So here’s the thing. We enjoy hiking, but all kinds of other things compete for time, attention, and energy. We don’t need the “Hiker’s 365 Challenge” to get us to do something we’d rather not do. We enrolled to have a bit of outside motivation and encouragement to do something we do enjoy, but gets crowded out of our lives.
We want to be able to send in those log sheets and get the “Way to go!” sense of accomplishment.
This powerfully motivating influence in a virtuous hobby points to a parable of Jesus recorded in Luke 19:11-27.
He tells the story of a wealthy nobleman who left town for a while, called ten of his servants together, gave each a sum of money, and told them, “Engage in business until I come.” That simple statement offers instruction (“engage in business”) and implies accountability at some point in the future (“until I come”).
It’s that future day of accountability that should serve as daily motivation for those ten servants, shouldn’t it? On that day, they’ll hear either, “What in the world have you been doing all this time?!?” or “Well done! Attaboy!”
The day finally arrived.
The first two servants were well-motivated, worked hard, and accomplished worthwhile results. Their “emailed certificate” came in the form of personal praise—“Well done, good servant!”—and tangible reward— “because you were faithful in a very little, have authority over ten cities.”
The third servant was neither motivated nor industrious. He did no business with the entrusted funds; just stashed them away.
No “certificate” for him. Instead, a severe rebuke!
Which of those two outcomes is more satisfying and fulfilling? Clearly a rhetorical question.
It’s that “Well done, good servant!” I believe that motivated Paul to press on even in the face of difficulty.
But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself,” he said, “if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.
– Acts 20:24
The “certificate” also seems to have motivated him to avoid distractions that could easily—and likely—disqualify him after years of service. He testified,
Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified.
– 1 Corinthians 9:25-27
And it also motivated him to keep growing and developing in his walk with Christ:
Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.
– Philippians 3:12-14
The prospect of a “Certificate of Completion,” of hearing “Well done!” can powerfully impact a person—not just to hike a few miles, but to trek the path of life!
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