‘The Pioneer Woman’: Ree Drummond Said She Learned a Big Life Lesson After 1 Challenging Moment With Ladd
Ree Drummond had a lovely romantic vacation with her husband Ladd, but she found a challenging hike during their trip tested her limits. The Pioneer Woman star shared the details of her epic hike with Ladd, how he encouraged her when she felt defeated, and what she learned from the experience.
Ree Drummond had a ‘hellacious hike’ with her husband Ladd
Ree returned from her trip to Vail, Colorado refreshed and ready to tell the tale of her hike up the Berry Picker trail. On July 27, Ree shared on her Instagram Story: “I wrote a blog post about my hellacious hike with Ladd.”
She titled The Pioneer Woman blog post, “I Went Hiking With Ladd and It Taught Me A Few Things About Life” and shared how her husband convinced her to hike up a mountain.
“Ladd and I had a wonderful week of vacation together, and I thought I was about to make a clean getaway from Vail without having to take any hikes,” Ree wrote. “But sure enough, the night before our last day, he said those dreaded words: ‘Let’s go on Berry Picker tomorrow.’”
She went on to share that the Berry Picker trail on Vail Mountain is rated difficult and she had hoped to ride the gondola up and hike down the mountain. Her suggestion wasn’t considered, however.
“But both Ladd and Matt, his cousin who with his wife Teresa were in Vail for a wedding, proclaimed that hiking downhill is harder on the ol’ knees and hamstrings, so before I knew it, we were walking toward the mountain to begin our hike,” Ree wrote. “We actually started on a trail called Strawberry Lane, which is considered “Moderate,” but I knew that soon it would intersect with Berry Picker and things would get a heckuva lot harder.”
Strawberry Lane, she explained, “didn’t feel very moderate” and she found herself stopping to catch her breath along the way. Ree noted that she “trudged on” even though it was hard.
They arrived at the Berry Picker trail, which was a constant uphill climb. “How can I express to you how difficult this hike was?,” she wrote. “Again, it isn’t like mountain climbing, but it is a walk uphill…for three solid hours. And 3.8 miles.”
She added, “The higher you get, the thinner the air, and it’s best just not to try to hold a conversation.”
Ree Drummond got some encouragement from her husband
Ree found herself feeling defeated by the mountain and told her husband she was going to turn around and walk down.
“I know myself, I told them, and I was really running out of steam. And I was! The stops were getting more frequent, and I could feel my energy waning,” Ree explained. “I even tripped over a rock and almost wiped out on the trail. I was over it!”
Ladd encouraged her to see the hike through and gave her the support she needed to finish. “But then Ladd did something really annoying,” she wrote. “He encouraged me to keep going. ‘Think of how glad you’ll be if you get to the top,’ he said.”
“’It’s not too much longer,’ he added. ‘I know you can do it,’” Ree recalled her husband told her.
She pushed through with her husband’s support and made it to the top. “It was glorious! Rewarding!,” she explained.
Ree shared the lesson she learned after their hike
After conquering the difficult climb, Ree found an amazing view… and a bit of perspective. She shared the lesson she learned from the experience:
“Life isn’t always easy. Sometimes it’s actually very hard. You have to stop and catch your breath. You have to stop and rest. Sometimes you have to stop and pray with all your heart, just to find the strength to keep going. You will trip and make mistakes. You will want to give up, not once but several times. You’ll wonder what the point is. You’ll want to take the easy road and go to the spa! (Haha.) But if you persevere…if you listen to the encouragement of others…heck, if you allow yourself to lean on others…you will get there. The higher you climb, the better the view! So keep going! And when you get there, how great will your reward be!”
