What We Owe to Ourselves: a 500-mile hike on the Colorado Trail

What happens when you don't want the same things that everyone around you seems to want? How lonely is a life lived off the traditional path?

In August 2021, after years of grieving a divorce, living in a tiny van, and grappling with pandemic isolation, lapsed hiker Nicole Antoinette set out to walk all 491 miles of the Colorado Trail.

It had been more than two years since her last long-distance hike at that point, and she had no idea if she could still do it. Was it unrealistic to think tha...