Philosophical lessons you learn while hiking

While walking along the ancient caribou trails along the Thelon River in the high Canadian arctic viewing the desolation and the bones at my feet contemplating my mother’s death just days ago I came to the realization that and I am going to use a quote I found on the internet:

Life is, as it were, defined by death. If there wasn’t death of things, then there wouldn’t be any life to celebrate. Life and death are one thread, the same line viewed from different sides. … For life and death are one, even as the river and the sea are one.

Since I first hiked over 45 years ago, nearly every time I go hiking I either start to tear up or actually cry, not tears of sadness but tears of peace and gratitude.  I feel God’s presence as much in his creation as I do in the most beautiful cathedral and am so grateful for all of the blessings I have been given…health, happiness, a wonderful wife, family, friends, and the privilege of enjoying his creation.  I am so small compared to the universe but simply because of my smallness, because I am alive, I feel so loved and never alone when I am in the wilderness.

Well said, Gerry B!

It never ceases to amaze me when I reorient to how few material things I really need to be happy and content and how with every passing day I feel I could easily cut ties with 90% of my city life, luxuries, responsibilities, petty issues and gripes and pleasures. Same happened on tall ships.

I never cared much for stuff. Never liked shopping, never liked gear (although I do still have trouble getting rid of things). I’ve raced bikes for several years, and was maybe the only one I knew who didn’t care for bikes and bike stuff, didn’t take care of my bike, didn’t like working on it, or buying things I needed, etc.

For some odd reason when I started hiking camping and backpacking a bit I suddenly found myself wanting gear, studying what I wanted, making gear lists, spending money, etc. I think for me, contrary to what one might assume, backpacking taught me to appreciate material possessions more. When I choose and pack so very few items and spend a night or two away from civilization with nothing but those few items, I feel more attached to them, the way I imagine ownership of a possession is supposed to feel.

My wife and I are slowly downsizing our stuff in our already fairly minimal apartment, and I realize so much of what we own I just don’t care for. Sure, I use most of it, but when several random items take the place of one specially chosen item, one ends up not really feeling that attachment to them.

I want to downsize until we only have what we need to do what we want to do, without duplicates. Simplify until there is no clutter, no random shit that isn’t loved.

But I definitely must resist the urge to keep buying just to improve the gear endlessly, but it does take a bit of trial end error to feel out what works for us. I guess we should get rid of one of our tents.

To preface my lesson, I am at my happiest doing things that have high highs and low lows, are an emotionally-exhausting grind that have my ready to quit, and have a way of being remembered as some of the best, most worthwhile experiences of my life. I think pretty much all my favorite memories and things that have brought me the most happiness have required lots of patience, resolve, and emotional energy (naturally, I love my job as a Title 1 teacher).

Naturally, I was drawn to this aspect of hiking and love how 20+ mile days in torrential downpours and thunderstorms, being in a shouting match with my parents after stumbling and tumbling down a steep hill on a descent without switchbacks towards the end of a long day, nights spent shivering under a tarp near freezing, and trips ending with heat exhaustion are some of the best days of my life.

With that being said, my revelation came on an overnight backpacking trip with a close friend to a nearby state park that felt more like camping. We hiked a couple miles in, ate yummy food, played dominoes, drank whiskey, then hammock camped on the side of a mountain. The next day, we wandered around the park’s well-marked trails with a map but no plan, going to the places we thought might be interesting, and leaving to get Cook Out after we’d hiked enough. As weird as it sounds, I guess I was surprised at how much I thought that having fun was, well, fun (I wanted to do a sufferfest hike that weekend).

When I tell people what I am doing and where I am going .. They mostly think I am a little crazy..

A few years ago, I was heading out for a few nights and traveling by train and had to transfer in NJ at Secaucus terminal. While walking to my next train platform, I was surrounded by 4 NJ terror task police officers and told to lay on the ground and keep my arms and legs spread apart.. Mind you, this was a big scene at rush hour in the middle of the terminal. It turns out, I had a small knife attached to my strap on the pack!! They did not approve of it and proceeded to search me further.  They then had me face against the wall while they searched my pockets and took my ID. Anyway.. To make a long story short, because they held me there for about 40 minutes.. After it was all said and done, one of the officers said to me.. ( and mind you,  other people have said this to me also when I tell them what I do and where I go).. ” So you just go out there in the woods and.rough it, huh? ”

My reply was.. ” Actually, I go out in the woods to take it easy and be refreshed.. Roughing it, is doing this every day.. paying bills, paying taxes, going to work…that is roughing it”.

So I guess that’s something I have learned while hiking, how much better it makes me feel and how at peace I am with not only myself, but everything else.. for that moment I am out there.. I do what I do because I know how to do it,  I am comfortable when I do it, and no, I am not roughing it.. (Can I say), ” I am living deliberately “…?

For me there’s an element of connecting to an ancestral energy. Humans travel long distances, sometimes on foot. There’s a primal impulse to explore. And this is how I do it now.

Also, similar to what others have said, I’m looking for ways in my day-to-day life to “always be backpacking.”

For me hiking + international travel was a pretty powerful combination. Prior, I’d cared about being outside far more than some people long to travel. But now I get it. Hiking solo while being very far away geographically from my everyday existence gave me some damn-near cliche-ish “perspective.” Basically had an epiphany shortly after my return that I’d been quietly struggling with a stealth case of ADHD. And that has brought about some significant positive changes in my life.