LAZAROW WORLD HIKE-ABOUT

Nepal: Evening below Annapurna.

'LAZAROW WORLD HIKE-ABOUT: WHAT IN THE WORLD IS HIKE-ABOUT?'

Hike-about is an adventure that commenced June 2010. After storing our household movables, ridding ourselves of a house but retaining our 'home' together, we set off with the purpose of hiking in different parts of the world, not forgetting the home country, the USA.

Our primary focus is hiking to mountain peaks but any challenging hike will do just fine. Extended stays enable us to enjoy and experience living in various places amongst differing cultures. Hike-about has evolved into a way of life. It's also a process of discovery, both the world and ourselves.

We work and live 'on the road' but return to the city in which our grandchildren reside, every couple of months. This provides us the wonderful opportunity to be with them as well as a child or two, even three and of course, friends.

By the end of 2023, the blog contained over 1,560 hikes (less than that actually undertaken), each a set of pictures with stories and anecdotes from the trails. An index to the right allows the viewer to identify earlier experiences.

Finally, we are often asked about the journey's end.
O
ur reply, as accurate as we can state, is: "When we are either forced to cease through health issues or the enjoyment level no longer reaches our aspirations, we will hang up the boots."

"A Life Experience As No Other: Dare to Seize the Day Together", published by Fulton Books, depicts our life on the road and mountains until the beginning of 2017. It has developed 'exponentially' since then.

Jenni and Jeffrey Lazarow

Whereas we continue to update the blog regularly, we circulate email notifications infrequently.

Monday, May 9, 2011

Hike 4: Haleakala Crater: Upside down mountain

A penny for your thoughts, on the way down

Ominous & beautiful--takes the breath away

Close to the bottom um ... the floor

Zig-zag down and of course, up again

Wow! Did I take a wrong turn

And now for something completely different. What a day. Following a wonderful Shabbos yesterday, our editor was not at all 'fazed' by the 8 mile hike on stones and rocks down and along the cliffs as we made our way to the 'floor' of the crater. It is a remarkable place. "It must rank in our top ten hikes," we mentioned. "Don't go that route again," she replied. "The last time we counted, there were 20 hikes in the top ten. You need to get rid of at least one if you are to add another," she fumed and strode down further. Obviously, she is correct but we don't see a solution so maybe the best ten will have grown by one...to 21. Whoever said that life was completely logical? Meantime, with every step downwards we remembered there would have to be another up. Logic is not ignored completely 'on the road', particularly when it suits us.

Parachute on first, please

We experienced light rain, moving and changing cloud formations, thick mist, some sunshine and incredible views on the way down, along the crater ‘floor’ and of course, on the return as we climbed and climbed and.... We hear people remark from time to time: Do you feel the energy? Let the spirituality take you higher. Well, we see the hand of Hashem clearly in teva (nature), we always do. However, regarding the energy, we certainly feel it—we feel it draining from our bodies particularly towards the end of a hike.
Surprising amount of growth and color

We were overjoyed to be on the climb and hike but we did feel the strain, exacerbated by the lava rock underfoot. However, every time we felt like sitting down and having a good cry, we noticed the determination and strength of our editor. We were motivated to push onwards and upwards. Rather than give in, we rushed ahead and had a good whine to ourselves--we felt a little better after that. "Are we a little nuts?" we wanted to know. Unfortunately, our editor knows when not to take the bait.
Crying (whining) corner

Contemplating the return--Up and over

We mentioned our pondering yesterday. It got us wondering somewhat again today. We notice that women of our age have the menopause, which causes much discomfort and a 'little' groaning. Is it not fair that men should have the womenopause and be allowed the occasional whine, too? This is another of life's imponderables that we struggle with on mountaintops. We were on a roll so our mind continued to grind: We thought as it was 'mother's day', should our editor be hiking along narrow cliff edges and into craters. We were saved when we realized our mother was at home safe and sound. After all, shouldn't Gavin, Natalie and Robert ensure their mother is being spoilt today? Hey, we're just asking.
Big mountain, little speck

We hope and trust all mothers enjoyed their day as much as Jenni did (We think?)

Cheers,

Jenni and her ‘Cry-baby’

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