What Does 'Just Over That Next Hill' Mean?

Hint: it's a metaphor for life

Dec 03, 2025

It started as a joke …

Back in the spring of 2016, shortly after I first met Kelly, we’d be out on a hike and would arrive at the time we had agreed to turn back and head for the car.

But we rarely did.

Kelly’s refrain was always:

Wait, I just want to see what’s over that next hill.

So we’d hike to the top of the hill, or around the corner to see what we could find.

You can probably guess what would inevitably happen next …

I bet the really good stuff is over THAT hill

Most of our hikes that spring ended with us literally running down the mountain so that we could get to the car in time for her to pick up her boys from school.

I’m pretty sure we were never actually late.

Fast forward to the summer of 2022 …

I was living in Texas, but had developed a habit of traveling to Arizona about one weekend a month.

Kelly and I hiked A Lot during those visits.

At some point I decided that I wanted to write about our hiking adventures. I’m pretty sure I initially had a WordPress blog, but eventually moved it to Substack.

But what the heck should you name a hiking blog?

Then it hit me …

Just Over That Next Hill

Aside: For a few months in 2024 Kelly was convinced that I’d gotten the name wrong and it was supposed to be Just Over THE Next Hill.

Some text messages from 2022 confirmed my memory (lol, which was not at all a sure thing at the time of the initial dispute)

So that’s how this publication got its name.

But it’s about More than just hiking …

I like to think that this is a good approach to life, even if you’re not at the top of a mountain.

As much as I would sometimes get annoyed with Kelly at the time, she’s right!

The really good stuff often is just around the corner, or over the next hill.

Think about it …

Life can come at us hard. We might be worn out, run down, ready to give up.

But optimism is all about what’s up ahead.

You not only have to believe there’s good stuff on the other side of the next hill, you have to be willing to climb it.

What do I (we) write about here on Just Over That Next Hill?

The majority of our posts will absolutely be about hiking, travel, photography, and maybe weather.

But related to my paragraph about about “more than hiking”, I have to tell you that I’ve been a fan of personal growth and positive psychology for a couple of decades now.

So don’t be surprised if you see some of those topics mixed in with the hiking and photography posts.

Also, because this is my site, I can’t resist from time to time telling a story about my time in the military, my time growing up as a brat (aka military dependent), or even some of my parenting stories.

I’ll try to limit those once a month or so, and kept as relevant to the overall theme of outdoors and hiking as possible.

Questions ?

Let me know what you think …

Discussion about this post

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