The year I turned 30, my friend Erin and I decided to hike part of Newfoundland's East Coast Trail—215 kilometres between Cappahayden and St. John's where the wild scenery was very charming! The path there would bring us great fun.
Neither of us had gone on a hiking trip longer than five days and now we were in for 14, but we were excited. Nature! Strength! Character! Our hike would end up giving me all of those things in cruel abundance, but there was one take-home I didn't expected: proof of the astonishing kindness of strangers.
As a shy woman schooled in the risk of stranger danger, I'm not one to open up to people I don't know. In Toronto I don't even chat with my seatmate on the subway or in a grocery line, and I certainly don't ask for help unless I'm desperate. But on this hike I had to learn new ways to cope.
Over our first two days we covered less than 30 kilometres, most of it in the rain. What had been a gentle mist when we started evolved into a downpour by the second day. Nothing dried overnight, everything was wet. The roads were rugged, with muddy patches so deep that stepping in the wrong place meant mud to mid-calf—which is to say over and into your boots. We squelched（发出嘎吱声）with every step.
All that was very awful for me. On our second day, as we were still on a road looking like cats left in the rain, a woman and her parents making their way from car to house caught sight of us and took pity. "Would you like to come in for a cup of tea?" Jenny asked.
"Thank you!"
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We hurried to their lovely home.
……
We'd encounter more kindness on the trip.
