My hiking buddy

This is Wilbur. He’s our 7-year old lab-border collie mix and the best dog ever. I know everyone says that about their dog, but this is our truth.

I don’t know if I would have signed up for 29029 if it wasn’t for the hikes I regularly go on with Wilbur. I can’t tell you how many times I have wrapped up a day of work over the past several years (since starting to work from home when Covid kicked in) and the first thing I have wanted to do is to rally my dog to get out on the trails. We typically only hike for about an hour, but that almost daily ritual has kept me sane and given me the space to stretch my legs, fill my lungs with fresh air and clear my head.

It was on these many hikes that I decided to hike (part of) the Camino de Santiago, the pilgrimage across Spain to Santiago de Compostela in the fall of 2022, a trip I did with three incredible guys who are now lifelong friends.

And it was on one of these hikes with Wilbur in early November that I decided to take the plunge to sign up for 29029. Wilbur has no idea what I got myself into, he just loves to hike and all he thinks about is the trail right in front of him. While Wilbur won’t be with me in Sun Valley in June, I know I’m going to need to channel my hiking buddy’s innocence and naïveté when things get tough. Just focus on the trail in front of me.

-Matthew

(December 10, 2023)