Grind is our coed backpacking trip set in challenging terrain with unpredictable weather and daily mileages into the double-digits.

D&T Grind is not for everybody. It’s not even for most people. And if you try to convince your friends to join you for Grind, there’s a really good chance they’ll never speak to you again.

In the words of one participant, “We are paying Dust and Tribe to torture us.”

Maybe. But I also think that D&T Grind is where we discover the distance between who we are and who we want to be, and that’s not information that most people can handle.

We are content in our illusions. We imagine that we are strong, wise, and pious even as we do little or nothing to cultivate body, mind, and spirit. It’s enough that our parents told us we were special. It’s enough that great works of film, literature, and music can transport us from the sad realities of our bloated bodies and blunted intellects into the safe harbor of our egos.

We never think to test our imagination. We do not want to discover that our dreams exceed our capabilities.

The men and women of Grind are different. Participants are not elite athletes or even wilderness enthusiasts. They are IT workers and college students and medical professionals and HR managers. They are people familiar with death and divorce and heartbreak and fear and uncertainty, the serrated edges of life that cannot be avoided.

They understand the value of resilience. And so they come to Grind, oftentimes year after year, despite the rigors and hardships, eager to reconnect with their “Grind Family.”

This past weekend, fourteen of us logged 30 miles through rarely-travelled portions of Henry W. Coe State Park. The rolling hills, gentle to the eye, are relentless in their undulation, snatching breath and tearing muscle on the ascent, crushing toes and hammering knees on the way down. But even as you heave and pound you are invigorated by a landscape beyond description: dew sparkling like diamonds on sheaves of emerald grass, gnarled oaks in early bud, and silvery ponds mirroring the rising sun.

This is beauty that cannot be experienced without pain. They are intertwined, the intensity of each predictive of the other.

So truly with hardship comes ease.

Q 94:5

We each had our own reasons for showing up. Some of us wanted to test ourselves. Some of us enjoyed the camaraderie of previous years. Some of us needed the distraction. The hills of Henry Coe take us up and down, moving us through humiliation, joy, anger, elation, frustration, victory, and disappointment, and in the end I don’t believe we all got what we were looking for.

But I am confident that we all got exactly what we needed.

We’ve got two more Grind events planned for May and September, God willing. They are not live just yet, so make sure you’re on the mailing list for early access.

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