What I learned from hiking this past weekend

It was >100 degrees in the Bay Area on Saturday, but since I love nature and well-planned events with cool people, I went on a hike organized by my ENFJ friend Tina. I knew it was going to be hot, but wasn’t going to let a silly thing like the weather stop me from keeping my RSVP. Plus, the trail was shaded and only 6 miles…how bad could it be?

Spoiler alert: not terrible, but suffice it to say that all of us learned a valuable lesson on how our bodies respond when we don’t bring enough water on a hike.

In my defense — while I only brought 1/2 liter of water when I should have brought 2 liters, I also had extra water in the car for afterwards. Still, it’s not a good sign when you finish all of your water before the halfway mark — especially when the first half is all downhill.

That was partly why I was antsy about taking an extended break when we reached the bottom. “Okay guys, let’s get going,” I said, trying to get the group to get going.

Tina laughed, “I knew you were going to be the one to tell us to start hiking. Come on, we’re just taking a break and hanging out.”

“Taking a break from walking downhill? Plus, we can hang out and hike at the same time.” Call me crazy, but when I’m invited to go on a hike, I expect to be hiking.

Unfortunately, I never got to hang out with the whole group after that break since we were all going at our own pace. Tina and I finished the hike first and pondered what to do while we waited. I was tired and it was late so I was just going to go home, but Tina suggested that we go to a grocery store to get gatorade for the rest of the group.

I called (my ENTP roommate) Cory to let him know, and Tina and I started driving to the nearest grocery store (~15 minutes away). While en route we get a text from one of the hikers (let’s call them Person D), “Oh Tina if you guys are getting drinks, try to get fruit popsicles too ;)!!”

I thought this was a ridiculous request mainly because as an arbiter of good taste, it didn’t feel like it was something most people would want or need. Which is to say: I didn’t want it, and after drinking gatorade I wasn’t sure how many people were going to want it either. Plus, even though I had a cooler I didn’t know how long it would have kept, and I really don’t like wasting food.

So…much to Tina’s chagrin, I didn’t get it. (She couldn’t get it since she didn’t have her wallet or mask.) Person D wasn’t thrilled, but they explained later that they were delirious from being dehydrated and was fantasizing about popsicles.

When I told this story to a friend they said it was kind of mean for me to not get it. I could certainly see that perspective, but I’m more curious what you, my loyal readers, think, and what you would have done in my shoes. (To provide more context, I had basically just met Person D. If it were a friend who asked I might have gotten it, but only if they assured me they’ll finish it.)

After dropping off the gatorade I chatted a bit longer and then went home. A part of me wanted to wait for the rest of the group so we could grab dinner and hang out together, but I was pretty hungry and also needed to get gas, so I left.

Reflecting on the whole experience, I had the following takeaways from everything that transpired:

1. Bring. Enough. Water. (Actually, maybe bring more than enough water.)
2. Be open to hanging out instead of doing the planned activity. Unless, of course, it’s getting late, you’re out of water, and need to go get gatorade for the group because nobody else brought enough water.
3. Apparently, people might think you’re mean even though you went out of your way to get something that was actually needed…but it’s okay because at least you got a blog post out of it. 😂