Why I hike, too
Tom Mangan, in his blog Two-Heel Drive, this week posted some eloquent reasoning behind why he got started hiking. They’re good reasons, and they match my own. Often there are people who make an impression upon us, giving us just enough cause to make the leap, buy the gear, and get out there to where Nature waits. The following is from my “feedback” response to Tom’s post.
There are moments out there — real, honest, emotion-inducing moments wherein the eyes well up, the spine tingles, and the captured memory — of such a single astounding yet fleeting blip in your Life — finds itself inescapably resonating with you long after you’ve left the trail. Be it a tree growing out of a rock and thriving, or two rattlesnakes mating, or a night filled with horizon-to-horizon meteors, or directly making eye contact with a bobcat, there is nothing like hiking in Nature to bring balance and absolute harmony to one’s Life. Not to mention endorphins and the smell of a forest.
We need to be thankful that we have such bounty around us that we can escape into when the feeling calls. I for one cannot fathom what it would be like for me to forsake regular visits to the wilderness — even when it’s just the local paved bike path along the creek at lunchtime.
Come to think of it: there was an extraordinary man in my early life who shaped much of the person I am today, and his name was also “Don C.”; he was my music teacher in high school, but also (lucky for me) an avid backpacker who advised our student’s backpacking club. I learned so much from Don about organizing trips, menu planning, wilderness ethics — even how to tie climbing knots. I remember less about playing the tympani for him than I do the fundamental grounding — and desire to be OUT THERE– that he left with me.
If you and your wife Carol are still out there tramping trail, Don, I sure hope to walk with you again.
