A couple in their 70s from California have revived a major hiking hobby, and their daily excursions have brought them closer to nature, to God, and to each other.
Retired dentist Doug Pulsipher, 74, and his wife, former stay-at-home mom Sally Pulsipher, 70, were born in the same hospital in Los Angeles, California, four years apart. Mr. Pulsipher was raised close to Los Angeles, while his wife was raised in Yucaipa. Today, the couple lives in Coeur D'Alene, Idaho, close to the mountains and numerous hiking trails.
“We’re best friends,” Mr. Pulsipher told The Epoch Times. “We started hiking a lot together about five years ago, and that makes it even better. It’s almost like you get to go on a date every day because we often will hike or walk together six days a week if the weather permits and that one-on-one time is really important.”
The couple first met in 1971, when Mr. Pulsipher was his future wife’s Sunday school teacher. Before long, they started dating.“I was head over heels in love with her,” Mr. Pulsipher said. “She graduated, and in June of 1972 we got married, so we’ve been married almost 51 years.”
The couple went on their first hike together in their early years of dating, when Mr. Pulsipher was a student at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah.
“There’s a mountain called Y Mountain right outside of the campus,” Mrs. Pulsipher said. “We kept going where there really wasn’t a trail. It was probably way too dangerous, but we were young and dumb so we went all the way to the top of Y Mountain and then came down the side of it. ... I couldn’t walk for two days after that!”
As the years passed by, the happy couple raised six children together. When Mrs. Pulsipher turned 65, she decided the time had come to “accomplish something great” and altogether different. She'd heard about Mount Whitney, the tallest mountain in the contiguous United States, and decided that hiking to its peak would be her challenge.
“We took a bunch of practice hikes together, and I did that hike,” she said. “Then we came back, and I had a great friend who had hiked the Pacific Crest Trail ... she was so inspirational, so we started hiking with her a little bit in the desert section of the hike. Then she planned a couple other hikes, and we just loved it.”
Not long after, the Pulsiphers became bonafide backpackers. Armed with a tent and a blowup mattress for the bed of their four-wheel-drive pickup truck, they began heading out on regular hikes together.
“We take our pillows from our bedroom,” Mr. Pulsipher said.
Mrs. Pulsipher’s best memory from their five years of hiking together is when the couple spent a night in the Washington Cascades.
“We couldn’t find a place to put our tent, and we found this huge flat boulder. It was a drop off to the edge,” she said. “We put our pads there, and we said, ‘OK, don’t roll around too much tonight because you can roll right off of there and be dead!’”
Describing the experience, Mrs. Pulsipher said the sunset was amazing, and laying there around the stars was a fabulous experience along with waking up to sunrise.
The couple’s longest hiking trip to date was an 11-night, 100-mile hike in 2021 in California’s Sierra Nevada mountains. Both Mr. and Mrs. Pulsipher prefer hiking trails to concrete and feel nature’s bounty brings them closer to God.
“There’s so much beauty,” Mr. Pulsipher said. “The wildflowers, the different colors at different seasons. To us, it just affirms our belief in God, that He created all of it for our enjoyment.”
“She has a wonderful eye,” Mr. Pulsipher told The Epoch Times. “I have always wanted her to narrate because she has such a happy voice,” adding that she was the one who would reward their children and grandchildren with bedtime stories.
Documenting their hikes has been like a “visual journal” for Mrs. Pulsipher.
“When I’m old and in the rest home, I’m just going to put on headphones and watch hiking videos of myself all the time!” she said.
As of now, they have people who comment on their videos, and that brings them joy and makes them laugh each day.
In sharing their story with the world, the couple’s message is simple.
“All of us need to recognize that this beautiful world in which we live was created by God, that we are all children of God, and He loves us unconditionally,” Mrs. Pulsipher said.
Through their hiking adventures, the couple have met different hikers and have been able to come together as one happy family.
“We’re all stinky, we’re all in grungy clothes, and we all are helpful to each other,” Mrs. Pulsipher said. “When you get on a trail, it’s the way it should be in the world. We should all be willing to help and accept and love everyone the same.”
The Pulsiphers believe that hiking is for everyone and have themselves benefited from it in many different ways. Mr. Pulsipher has lost 70 pounds in five years, and the hiking bug has even spread to other members of their family including their daughters and several of their 20 grandchildren.
The Pulsiphers, who consider themselves to be “fair weather” hikers, have an extensive checklist of essential items including wet weather gear, trekking poles, and bear spray to counter the hazards.
Additionally, the couple always plans everything for their hike including having the trail maps on their phone so they know where they are headed.
But sometimes their plans have been spontaneous and then Mr. Pulsipher makes the “best peanut butter and jam sandwiches,” for lunch, and the couple just hops in the truck and leaves.
Through hiking for some time, Mrs. Pulsipher said you can get fit quickly and build up your stamina.
“I tell you, once you get out of the city, and you just get into the trees, in the sky, and there’s just so much beauty, it just lifts you like nothing else,” she said. “Way better than screens and drugs.”
Sharing their philosophy for a happy relationship, the Pulsiphers believe that even after marriage, a couple should continue to date, adding that faith has been a cornerstone of their relationship.
“We view our marriage as a covenant,” Mrs. Pulsipher said. “You have to be kind of unselfish and willing to look the other way when your husband does something weird. He looks the other way when I do something weird, and we just have a great time together!”
