Have you ever hiked while you were mad? Don’t even try it. It won’t last. Do you know how hard it is to maintain anger while you’re trekking through lush forest and climbing over huge boulders while the beautiful creek rushes by you? It’s pretty difficult let me tell you!

I’ll tell on myself a little here. I just completed one such mad hike with the Sheriff.

Have you ever been so mad and you just wanted to stay mad for a little while? You just wanted to let that anger flow a little? Nothing too toxic. Nothing over the top. You just want to be mad. That was me on this particular day. (All of this is beside my point which was that I was right.)

Here is a little backstory to my madness. Sometimes on particularly bad days, mine and the Sheriff’s jobs intersect. With him being the overseer of all things law related and me being the world’s longest running crisis counselor, we occasionally run into each other in certain situations during our work hours. Like I said, that usually happens when some sort of an already bad situation goes even further south. And just for the record, we both try to avoid these at work run ins with each other at all cost. Because, well, something is just not going well at all. And, no matter how much we think we like each other, we have a difference in opinions when it comes to certain work related subjects.

So this was one of those days. There was a situation that others were trying to reel us into and really neither of us could resolve the situation right away anyway. We already had our day planned to take this hike. During most of our drive to the trailhead, we were at odds over the work issue. We weren’t really arguing and not yelling but definitely having a spirited conversation. I’m not going to lie, I was a little mad about our differing opinions. Well, mad that he didn’t agree with my expert opinion.

This particular hike, we were taking the Fiveasaurus to a beautiful waterfall in the Gee Creek Wilderness so we couldn’t cancel. You can’t cancel on a Fiveasaurus, nor a waterfall for that matter. Thankfully, he was with us, we couldn’t yell or say things that we’d regret later. The Sheriff couldn’t slide me down off a slippery rock even if he’d wanted to and I’m almost positive he wanted to. I couldn’t just stomp off and leave him behind because, well that’ll never happen anyway, mainly because I’d get lost.

But I was bound and determined to convince him that he was wrong and that I was right. He was trying to sell me his insane illogical notion that I definitely wasn’t buying. Nor was he buying my everso rational argument for why I was still right. So, along the trail we go, huffing and puffing at each other. We are huffing and puffing over huge rocks too, through a beautiful creekside trail, trying to find a majestic waterfall. All the while trying to stay mad but not to alarm the Fiveasaurus either. It’s not his fault his Gigi and Pap are bullheaded. Luckily, both of our jobs have a lot of situations that are named by certain acronyms and numbers (like BOLO, 10-4, 6401 or CON) so it sounded like we were having one of those fights where you spell out things to avoid saying something outright awful.

Knowing the Sheriff like I do, he probably wasn’t trying as hard as I was to stay mad. He never stays mad as long as I do. He hardly ever even gets mad, which sometimes really gets my blood boiling! I was having to work really hard at it and in the end I could not maintain my ire. On a side note, it is really hard to be mad around the Fiveasaurus in general. He’s a pretty happy little Guy. But when he got so excited over the waterfall and yelped at how cold the water was, there was just no way I could stay mad-not even at the Sheriff’s illogical logic.You just can’t ruin the trip of a little guy who eats trail snacks from a Cookie Monster Backpack.

I probably never got my point across. Who’s kidding who?! You know I didn’t convince him I was right-even though I am always right! And did I really need to get my point across? The situation actually resolved itself without either of us intervening, so it was all for naught anyway. And I’m sure we will have that same argument again because it’s a work issue and work is never ending. We do different types of jobs and have different philosophies. So be it.

But it was a good lesson, for me at least. If you’re fighting mad and you want to stay mad, don’t go hiking at all. Don’t go see a beautiful waterfall. Don’t climb over boulders. Don’t listen to the babbling creek as it goes by. Don’t have fun trail snacks at the end of your hike. Definitely don’t take a five year old with a Cookie Monster backpack full of Starbursts and fruit snacks.

If you are mad and want to get over it quickly, lace up your boots and hit the trail. Pretty soon, you get your heart rate up. You will get some fresh air in your lungs. You may even get some dirt on your boots. The oh so important work philosophies and differing opinions will be left along the trail somewhere behind you, where they belong.

Did I mention I am still right?

I’d love to hear your experiences. Have you ever been mad, emotional or even anxious and felt relieved by a hike? Comment below and tell us where you went and how you overcame.

Also if you are interested in reading some the Sheriff’s stories, you can find his Amazon author’s page here.

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