I consider myself an active and fit person. I'm not about to enter competitions or run a race any time soon, but if I needed to walk ten miles to a gas station in the middle of nowhere, I (think) I could do it (with some griping, of course). So of course, one of the things I was most excited to enjoy in LA was the endless amount of hiking trails now laying at my feet. Exercise in which you walk, can talk with a friend, AND get sun? Count me in.

My first goal was to enjoy a hike every weekend, but sometimes weather gets in the way and prevents that from happening. Like those first few weeks I was here in which it decided to rain every.weekend. But hey, SoCal needed it and I digress. My first solo-hike was a big day for me, not only because I got up and got out on a Saturday but because I fought any urge to stay in my apartment and fill my day with something else. I've realized that I tend to avoid putting myself in places I've never been to in LA, because I get ridiculously freaked out about parking. Everyone knows parking here is the worst, so I just assume wherever I go it's going to be impossible to find a place to leave my beloved car.

So here I am, Saturday morning, driving out to Temescal Canyon, excited and proud all at once. I take the first parking spot along the road I find, which is a mistake I'll continue to make (keep trying a little bit closer, Kaitlyn!), and start my trek. I park at least half a mile from the Canyon entrance itself, and by the time I get there I'm thinking, "Did I even look up anything about this trail, besides how to get to it?" The answer is no, I did not. Thankfully I find a map, but only spend twenty odd seconds looking at it before I decide to just find a trail and go. Brilliant idea.

Somehow my navigational mind gets me to the correct path and up I go, earbuds in listening to music and reflecting on the past few weeks. In just over a month I had up and moved, sold the house, started a new job, and made new friends, plus I was working out on a Saturday. This must be the new and improved LA Kaitlyn. The hike was a challenge, I won't lie. I was trying to get to a waterfall, and with no cell service and no companion, I started imagining I'd get lost up there and wander for hours on end. That I was on a trail not leading to a waterfall but further back into the canyon. At this point, after taking a few pictures of course, I ask the first person I see if I was close, or even on the right path, to the waterfall. "You are!" she tells me, then proceeds into how close I am and just go this way then that.

It wasn't as close as she led on, but I ended up blindly following her directions and the trail to wind up at the waterfall. It was cute, and after I took more pictures to send my parents, I stared back up the steep trail I had just come down. I wanted nothing to do with going back up it, and when I saw people were walking down another trail, I decided to blindly follow them. I'm sensing a pattern. Fifteen minutes into this endeavor I grew nervous, but I somehow convinced myself it was a loop and I would end up at the parking lot, able to walk to my car half a mile away. And if it ended up elsewhere? Good 'ol Uber could get me to my car.

Great news - it WAS a loop, just like I had read earlier that day but conveniently forgot, and I ended up in the place I started. The hike was a wonderful challenge, and the time to myself to think and feel super independent was welcome. Not knowing exactly where I was going? That's the key takeaway I took. You can run through random streets in Paris, picking at will and knowing you'll still end up in the city, but randomly picking a trail in a canyon? Definitely a no-go. Get a map, Kaitlyn, and make a plan.