[at-l] RE: Hikes for other Reasons

[OX97GAME at aol.com (OX97GAME@aol.com)]

I enjoyed reading Dave's message about doing vs. being.

It prompted me to add my nickel here.  : )

I think it ironic that some people have to go to the jungle to get away from the 'jungle'.   I know that I need to do that very thing from time to time.  I am originally a farm boy, raised in the country in a town of 600 people.  Now, I live in a city with nearly 6 million people.    All the cars, noise, smog, people.  It is hustle and bustle and chaos everywhere.  It makes one crazy after a while, so I find myself drawn to the quiet of the trails.   

I am not out there to achieve anything other than to regain some sanity and let my mind and body de-tox from all the negative that IS the city.   I know several others that fall into this same type of situation.  They arent running from anything, going out to find anything, dont have aspirations of achieving something.   They go just to go.   Some for as little as an hour, some for months.   But they all get the similar experience.

On my thru in 97, I didnt really set out with the intention of going the distance.  Oh, we all talked about it in Georgia and North Carolina.  The dream and fantasy of hiking to Maine.  We all knew that maybe 10% would actually finish, and most (including myself) put me in the 'other' 90%.  I went out to find a place where I could unwind, think about where I was in my life, and to try to sort out where I was going.   I was looking for direction.  Along that narrow footpath through the woods, I discovered a lot about myself that I never knew and probably never would have found out had I not ventured there.  

I too had to do a lot of justification before the hike.  All the questions about why.   After the trip, not a single person questioned.  It was the right thing for me to do, and all that knew me before agree that I am a better person for having 'done' it.  Sometimes 'Being' is 'Doing', or is a result of doing.

Long distance hikers are a family.  We discover new brothers and sisters all the time.  We may not have hiked 'with' them directly, but we have certainly all hiked with them indirectly.  The hiker, town, mountian, river, trail names change, but we (the hiker family) all travel that same narrow path.   

Happy Hiking

-- 
Franklin LaFond
aka ?Ox 97 Ga-Me