Last year, my mom and I bought hiking boots the week before we left for The Ranch Hudson Valley. I had never hiked before. I figured it couldn’t be that bad—and it ended up being the best thing I’ve ever done.
For those unfamiliar, The Ranch is a detox retreat in the Hudson Valley that has become something of a celebrity wellness pilgrimage.
The schedule is aggressive: Tibetan wind chimes outside your door waking you up at 6am, a ginger shot when you check in, four hours of hiking a day, vegan food served family-style to a table of 25 strangers, and breath work that — I’m not exaggerating — gave me an out-of-body experience. There is, I discovered last year, very little that your body can’t do if you stop telling it that it can’t.
I left that first trip genuinely proud of myself in a way I hadn’t felt in a long time. I realized that I actually really enjoy hiking. (Initially I didn’t think my attention span would last more than an hour. I needed up hiking for 4 hours a day, three days in a row.)
What I also hadn’t realized was that the hiking required so much focus and attention (I’m told the trails we did were very “technical”) that I never even had a moment to think about work, or capturing content, or checking emails. Which is the EXACT type of thing I so desperately needed.
I don’t talk about this much, but I have been in a constant state of burnout for about six years. If you follow me, that probably doesn’t come as a surprise. Since starting Hotel Lobby, I have genuinely forgotten what it feels like to take time off and do something that isn’t work-adjacent.
I’m not a woo-woo person, but there is something about four hours in the woods, a full night of sleep, and dinner with strangers that completely recalibrates you.
So naturally, the moment I left the first time, I was dying to go back.
I really wanted to do it with Matt the second time around. Our whole lives and relationship are consumed by work, and I felt like we could really benefit from a reset. Same boots (his were new), same chimes, same eggplant lasagna with pomodoro sauce that I still think about.
I was admittedly nervous he wouldn’t like it as much as I did. You know when you rave about a movie or restaurant and you want someone else to experience it, but it doesn’t live up to the expectations you set the second time around? That’s how I felt about bringing Matt!
He was definitely skeptical about the vegan food and all of the hiking, but he just committed to leaning in and he ended up loving it too.
I have to add a caveat here: while I will rave about the Ranch until I’m blue in the face, I’m also aware that it is VERY expensive. I feel incredibly blessed to have gotten the chance to experience it but it’s also not everyone’s cup of tea—most of my friends would much rather spend that kind of money on literally anything else.
I think the overarching message though (or at least what I took away from it) was how genuinely good it feels to do something outside of your comfort zone that forces you to be present. Especially if you’re in a season of life where you’ve been going through the motions and moving at lightning speed.
My family came to visit Matt and I in East Hampton over Father’s Day weekend, and on Sunday morning, when we ordinarily would have all been sitting on the couch watching TV or scrolling on our phones, we decided to do a hike as a family instead. (My mom’s idea!)
She had downloaded the app AllTrails after we left The Ranch last year, and she’s been using it to find places to hike locally. When they came to stay with us, she found the perfect 1.5 mile trail on Shelter Island not far from where we live. The hike was supposed to be a quick 30-45 minute ordeal, but we ended up getting lost so it took us about an hour—and needless to say, there were a lot of laughs along the way. It was nice to do something different where we were all present and able to connect.
After the hike we went to a bougie brunch on Shelter Island and drank rosé at the most beautiful waterfront table.
But I bet if you were to ask every member of my family what they actually enjoyed most about Father’s Day, they would say, undoubtedly, it was the hike.
Hope you all have an amazing Sunday :-) I’ll see you on IG!
Xx
Lindsay
PS If you’ve been curious about The Ranch, consider this your sign, and if you have any questions about The Ranch Hudson Valley, feel free to ask me!
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