Hobby Park:Chasing Trails: A Hiking Addict’s Refusal to Stay Indoors

jeeksparties8
Mar 9
3 min read

So, I’ve come to a realization—I’m a full-blown addict. Not to caffeine (okay, that too). My drug of choice? Hiking. That sweet, soul-reviving, dopamine-spiking fix of fresh air, dirt under my shoes, and not to be forgotten......that well-earned post-hike meal

Only a hiker knows the pure satisfaction of that meal—the kind that hits different when your stomach is a bottomless pit

Now, while some of you might suggest I “calm the hell down” or “just reschedule” when the weather looks dodgy, let me stop you right there—I do not negotiate with the weather gods. If I can hike, I will hike.

This might sound reckless, but I spent nearly 20 years juggling a weekend side hustle in hospitality, dealing with clients who completely lost their minds if Google so much as hinted at a chance of rain—two weeks in advance.

Do you know how many frantic calls I got to cancel a function over a forecast that ended up being dead wrong? Do you know how many hours I wasted stressing over the weather? Do you care? Probably not. But I do, which is why I refuse to let a few dramatic clouds dictate my plans.

And just to clarify...you don’t catch a cold from a little rain. You get sick from viruses. Your grandma’s dramatic theory about getting the flu because a gentle breeze grazed

your shoulder? Ummm, no.

Now, I get it—hike organizers HAVE to cancel for actual safety reasons (lightning, flash

floods, groups of people who might stage a mutiny at the sight of a drizzle). They don’t have a choice. But me? The second I see a group hike has been cancelled, I immediately morph into a crazed mongoose, scrambling to find an alternative. Because rain? Please.

And once I secure a backup plan? Order is restored. Balance returns. Life resumes.

So, when the second weekend in a row, rolled around with the universe playing its weather-related mind games, I knew what I had to do: Find my people. Not just any people—deranged people. The ones who see an 80% chance of rain and think, That means there’s a 20% chance of glory!

Enter Sage. My newly named hiking bud. My people. My fellow lunatic, willing to hike through whatever nonsense the sky decides to throw at us.

And, as luck would have it, we found a hike leader, who was equally unhinged—someone who was still going ahead with the hike, rain or shine. (As long as there was no lightning. Because, you know, survival,mutiny etc.)

Destination: Hobby Park, somewhere in the Krugersdorp area. For those on that side of town—boom, right on your doorstep.

Were we surrounded by breathtaking, untouched wilderness? Nope. The view? Highways and rooftops. But somehow, once you’re on the trail, the whole suburban sprawl just melts away. You’d swear you were deep in the Magaliesburg—minus those soul-crushing inclines I love to hate.

The views from the top? Unreal. Your brain actually malfunctions, refusing to believe that just below, people are stuck in traffic, doom-scrolling, or debating whether to microwave fish at work on Monday.

Up here? None of that exists. It’s just you, the trail, and a level of peace that feels almost illegal.