Wandering Soles

After years of finding their way through the jungle of work in the legal world, Vincent and Margie Messina found a way to escape.

By hiking their way through the wilderness.

If you can’t find the Messinas, odds are they are out in the middle of nowhere. It might be Big Bend, one of their favorite places, or somewhere equally as adventurous as the south rim of the Grand Canyon.

“I love being outdoors and seeing the beautiful sites, things you don’t see on the roads,” Margie said.

“I’m all about the scenery,” Vincent said. “There’s a portion of Big Bend where you stand and can see 30 miles into Mexico. And when you get to enjoy that with somebody you love, that’s the big payoff .”

Vincent and Margie first met at Baylor University. They both graduated from law school there in 1985. A few years ago, on their 25th wedding anniversary, they decided to try something different. They took a trip to the Grand Canyon, which included a boat trip down the Colorado River.

“We hiked out, then went to Havasu. We fi nished by going to Vegas,” Margie said. “Then we wanted to go to Big Bend. We decided to buy a little RV, and a teardrop (camping trailer).”

Since then, their adventures have taken them to such places as Yellowstone, Yosemite, and the upper peninsula of Michigan.

“Michigan was very cool,” Vincent said. “We’d done the national parks to the west.”

Among their most memorable trips was one that included them visiting Glacier Park in Montana, and then going up into Canada.

“It’s so beautiful. We ditched our RV right outside the park. You’re an hour and a half outside the Canadian border, so we just went up, and on up to Lake Louise,” he said.

This past summer Margie ventured to Yosemite for her longest hike yet, 70 miles over a week. While Vincent hasn’t stayed out that long, he has hiked up to 10 miles in a single day, up from Phantom Ranch to Bright Angel Trail in the Grand Canyon. Together, they’ve scaled the side of the mountain in Havasu Falls.

“You have to grab onto a chain,” Vincent said. “It’s pretty spooky getting down there, but once you do, the water is aqua blue.”

Most of their hiking is done in national and state parks. They find ways to escape the crowds; however, they never attempt to go somewhere out of the way without a guide. “I felt isolated one time - at Big Bend. It was a seven-mile hike, and it was desolate, except for our guide,” Vincent said. “We’re not survivalists. We’d never attempt anything like that without a guide,” Margie said. And they’ve never found themselves in what they’d call an overly dangerous situation. “We’ve had some weather issues in Big Bend, and we had a situation in Grand Canyon where some people didn’t put up a tent because they thought they’d enjoy the beautiful night. They got soaked, but we were okay. We put up a tent,” Vincent said. Prior to becoming hikers, they each had their separate activities. Vincent, for example, ran a pair of half marathons in past years, and Margie has long been a weight trainer. Now, while they hike regularly, they also have to always be ready. “It does take some preparation. You can’t just walk out the door and do it,” Margie said. It also takes some strategic planning, Vincent said. “Some places like Big Bend, if you don’t keep track of your water, you can get in serious trouble,” he said. As for animals, they’ve seen a few, some dangerous. It’s just part of the experience, and something else to be prepared for. “I hiked Guadalupe Mountain National Park and we saw lots of snakes on that trip,” Margie said. “But we’ve never seen a bear in Big Bend or Yosemite. We saw one in Mesa Verde, of all places.” Vincent added, “I kicked up a rattlesnake coming down from Glacier Point.” The Messinas make an annual big trip every year, usually in August, for a couple or three weeks. They also visit Big Bend every year after Christmas, and will hit the road whenever they can for smaller trips in the fall and spring. And sometimes they bring family members along. Vincent smiled and recalled the time when his granddaughter, Emilia, rode on his son’s back in a backpack on one hike. Margie said a three-day journey with their daughter, Maggie, around the outer loop of Big Bend was a favorite memory. And they plan on making many more memories. When asked how long they plan to continue hiking, Vincent replied, “Until we can’t.” “There was a 72-year-old man who came up behind us in Guadalupe Mountain National Park. He just threw down his pack, and rolled out his sleeping bag. He didn’t even have a tent,” Margie said. “That’s what nature will do to you. You just fall in love with it and want to be in the middle of it.”