Hope smiles from the threshold of the year to come, whispering, ‘It will be happier.’ ~ Alfred Lord Tennyson

Happy Holidays – Goodbye 2024!

This year has been a year of complete madness for me. I expected at this point to be fully writing about my impending retirement and be fully training for my next thru-hike attempt on the Appalachian Trail. Of course, if you’re a regular reader you know those plans have been scraped. Instead I’m prepping for at least another year of work and open heart surgery in August. Getting to that decision point included a solid month of feeling like a ball in a pinball machine. I’m happy to have clarity on where things are heading in my life, even if it’s a significant change and a scary surgery.

It seems the whole world has gone a bit mad in 2024, wars, elections, other governmental chaos in a number of countries. I won’t be sad to see 2024 go, although to be fair all years have ups and downs, I found the downs in 2024 to be a bit much.

One surprising upside was a better than expected Christmas holiday. With everything going on my normal planning went into the tank. However, I was able to get almost all of my Christmas presents out the door, and even plan a trip out to the Mojave and Christmas dinner with friends in Las Vegas. I also got a project off the ground in the middle of the chaos and have started doing my three questions posts every day on the road to writing my next book.

I’m looking forward to 2025, I’ve set my sights on getting in two international trips before my surgery. The big one being a hopeful April trip to Tasmania to do the Overland Track. This also will be my sixth continent and I’m excited for both achievements. I’m also seriously considering a trip to Iceland.

My holiday trip to the desert was as fabulous as I could hope for. A few days out in the desert in Valley of Fire State Park camping and hiking. The weather was fantastic, I had good camp neighbors, had several close interactions with Bighorn Sheep and got in some great hikes. I’m spending my time before going back to work taking it easy, doing some cooking and baking and getting back into my workout routines.

So here’s to positive hopes and expectations for 2025. I hope you are all able to head into the new year in the same way. And to kick it all off, below are some images from my trip, enjoy and have a happy day and a happy new year my friends. ~ Rev Kane