Just after Christmas of 2009, a small group of ladies who workout together were approached by their trainer who had completed the Oxfam Trailwalker Hike in 2008 asking if we were up for a challenge of a lifetime.
We were all very hesitant about walking 100km, but after a couple of days of considerable thought, 16 ladies (4 teams of 4) decided that we were up for the physical challenge of hiking and raising funds for Oxfam. Several weeks later, the 16 of us took some time to meet up and think of different ways that we could start fundraising. Our ideas for fundraising were a huge success as we went above and beyond the required amount that Oxfam asked that we raise as a team. We began our fundraising in early February so that once spring hit we could focus more on training ourselves, and our process worked out just that way, by early spring we had all met our goal of raising the required amount for our teams to qualify in the hike.
Our physcial training began in the early spring with indoor bootcamps and weight training, by late spring we had ventured outdoors to the trails. Living in Orangeville, we are very lucky to have the Bruce Trails literally right in our backyards. All of us had purchased our hiking shoes to be worn on the Oxfam hike early so that we could break them in and easily recognize any “hot spots” that we should be wary of for the big hike. Our outdoor training commenced with family hikes on Sunday mornings, and as we got closer to the big hike, the 16 of us would set out for longer hikes and night hikes on the trails. We even ventured off to the Ganaraska trail one Sunday to prepare ourselves for any surprises that we might have endured.
On July 21 (the evening prior to the hike) none of us could sleep, we were all very excited and nervous about the next 48 hours. Finally the big day had arrived; we began our trek the Friday morning at 9am and hiked right through until 10pm that evening. Our last trail on Friday was an 8.6km hike in the dark, we were all very thankful that we had completed night hikes during our training. It was approx 12am before any of us finally let our adrenaline drop and decided to sleep for a couple of hours before we began on Saturday.
We had monitored the weather and due to the extreme heat alert, we awoke at 3am on Saturday morning to have something quick to eat prior to heading out back on the trails at 4am. Yes, that’s correct, after hiking for 13 hours on Friday, we slept for only 3 hours and decided to head out as early as possible to get most of our second day hiking in prior to the heat taking effect.
At 9:35pm on Saturday July 23, 2010 the Extreme Energy Hikers all linked arms and crossed the finish line as a team. As exhausted as we all were, both physically and emotionally we still managed to put smiles on our faces as we saw our families waiting at the finish line for us.
We wouldn’t have been successful in this hike if it wasn’t for our amazing support crew that met us at each checkpoint. When we came into the checkpoints there they were there with our chairs, new bladders filled with water, food, our change of clothes, and most importantly cheers to welcome us in after completing another trek.
The Oxfam volunteers and staff were absolutely amazing, with insuring our safety while guiding traffic, providing medical aid, having massages available for the leg cramps, driving up and down the roads monitoring us for any signs of heat exhaustion, providing us with ice water soaked face clothes to wrap the base of our necks on the second day of hiking in 38 degree weather and the enthusiasm from each and everyone of them as we checked in and out of checkpoints.
For some of us, this was the most life altering, painful but yet, the most rewarding experience that we’ve ever done in our lives. That being said, some of us are already registered for 2012!
