My advanced guide to hiking

Some months back I wrote my basic guide to hiking. In it I held forth on such topics as where, when, footwear, and fire, as well as quite a few others. Read through it and you should be prepared to head out on a hike, as well prepared as any troop of Boy Scouts. Or at least that’s the idea.

Considering everything I included in the last piece, my basic guide, what am I going to include in my advanced guide? Details on how to find or build shelter? A step-by-step guide on procuring food? Naw, there’s lots of books and other sources about that stuff. Speaking of which, I need to get a couple of those books and do some studying…

No, what I want to write about goes in a different direction entirely. If the basics are about the physicality of hiking, then the advanced deals with the mind and spirit.

Why are you going out there?

Very few of us live in wilderness, so to go there requires volition and some reason for doing so. It isn’t something that usually happens accidentally on our way to work or to the library. Edward Abbey speculated that we need wilderness because we are wild animals, while for John Muir it was enough to believe that the mountains were calling to him. For some of us it is the allure of physical activity out in the clean air and beneath the open sky. For others it is the drawing away form the haunts of man and his civilizations. For still others it is the chance to see something or experience something which is not in the realm of everyday life. Perhaps it is all of these things or none of them.

It is not necessary to be able to say why you want to go out into the woods and mountains. It is not necessary to have the introspective nature to ponder these questions (obviously I have it). I do believe, though, that if you can say why you are going then you can open yourself up to the right moments and places, thus ensuring that you achieve your goals.

What is in your mental backpack?

If I were to pick you up tomorrow morning, on your way into work, hand you a well-stocked pack, and tell you that you were about to go hiking do you think you would be prepared to craft a wonderful experience? No, I didn’t think so. If I gave you a day’s notice or a week’s, but you didn’t think about it or do anything to get ready would your experience be any better? I suspect not. Even if you have all the gear you need—your physical backpack—lacking a mental backpack will sabotage you as surely as showing up for a rocky climb in wingtips and a tuxedo.

The first stage in assembling your mental backpack starts long before you set foot to trail, and often starts with the topics looked at in my basic guide. Where are you going? When are you going? What are you bringing? The answers to these questions don’t just dictate the physicality of your journey, they also set our feet on the path to being mentally prepared. Knowing what you will do if you get hot or cold is just as important as having layers you can put on or take off. Knowing the importance of drinking plenty of water is the first step to choosing what hydration equipment you will carry. Understanding the mechanics of your body means being able to accurately gauge how far, how fast, and for how long you can go.

If you’re getting the impression that filling your mental backpack is the first step in preparing to fill your physical backpack then you are absolutely right. Every piece of gear you choose is the answer to a question or a need you’ve identified. Every piece of gear you choose is personal to you. This is the reason why my basic guide doesn’t include links to specific products. Any brands and models I choose would be the compliments of what I carry in my mental backpack, not the compliments to yours. Is this making sense?

Question: what are you going to do if you get lost? If your answer is that you have a map and compass or a GPS then you haven’t filled your mental backpack with the right equipment. (This question, by the way, could have to do with absolutely any element of hiking, not just figuring out where you are. We’ll stick with it for a little while, though.) If your answer is that you’ve got your smart phone and Google maps with you, well, you’ve failed the test for any number of reasons. If your answer, on the other hand, is to say that you’re going to stop where you are, examine how you got there, keep calm, and make a plan, then you’ve put many of the right things into your mental backpack. If you can provide a learned discourse on wilderness survival and orienteering then you’re probably someone who’s put in a lot of thought, not to mention someone I would gladly go hiking (and get lost with) any time.

What you put in your mental backpack is going to be both more varied and more personal than what you put in your physical backpack. With that being said I will offer a few suggestions on where to begin. First and foremost, get yourself a good trail guide. In that book don’t just skip right to reading about the trail you’re going to visit (though you should read that entry several times). Instead spend some time reading the first couple of chapters wherein the author usually writes about the area you’ll be visiting, trail etiquette, and a host of other useful things. If you do this and nothing else you will at least have the basics of what you need. Taking things a step further, spend some time reading trip reports written by recent visitors to your proposed destination. Many sites exist that allow hikers to share these tales with one another. This will prepare you for the seasonality of the place, as well as any recent developments. If you want to stock your backpack even more fully get a book about outdoor survival and use that to prepare yourself for what to do if things go wrong.

This is the key idea behind the concept of a mental backpack. As important as your gear may be, without knowledge you aren’t ready to get the most out of your hike.

What is in your spiritual backpack?

So you’ve got gear and you’ve got knowledge … you’re ready! Right? Maybe, maybe not. Don’t get me wrong, having skillfully built physical and mental backpacks will certainly guarantee you a comfortable and largely successful hike. You’re unlikely to suffer any great mischief, and if the SHTF you’re well prepared. There’s more to going there and being there, though, and this is where we have to consider what we brought with us in our spiritual backpack.

Up until now the concepts I’ve talked about have been pretty straightforward. Gear and knowledge are easy to understand and most of us can relate to them. What we carry with us of a spiritual sense is harder to explain, measure, and even justify if you’re inclined to disagree. None the less I feel that the spiritual cannot be left out of the equation, and this is where we get back to the first question I posed here: “why?”

It isn’t likely that you are going out into the forests or the mountains because you just happened to buy all this nifty gear. It would be strange if you learned all about the wilderness and only later decided that you might as well go there. Equipment and knowledge typically are the result of asking and answering why, which brings us back to the spiritual. What need did you find in your soul that caused you to turn your feet away from the sidewalks and shopping malls? What yearning drew you out to where the rain can fall on your head and the sun beat down on your shoulders? What emptiness could only find its compliment where the hawk wheels in the sky and the coyote sings at night?

At the bottom of this piece I’m going to include a selection of quotations from John Muir and Edward Abbey—my two, favorite, environmental writers—that speak to the idea of wilderness spirituality (at least to me). Before we reach that ending, though, I want to get back to that concept of a spiritual backpack.

The first item we add to our spiritual backpack is why and whatever answers you’ve come up with for that question. Don’t worry too much if your answers aren’t thorough, much less complete. Spirituality is a constantly changing and evolving thing, and your answers should be too. Knowing at least a little bit of what brought you out on to the trail will prepare you for the opportunities to find fulfillment along the way.

The second item I think you should have is respect. Respect the other people you will meet along the way. Treat them as you would someone you care about and allow them the environment they need to meet their goals. Even more importantly, respect the nature of the place you came to visit. Realize that the place where you are often exists in a fragile balance and that abuse at your hands could irreparably harm it. Respect will have many outward actions (and inactions) which you’ll learn about as you assemble your mental backpack, but the core piece is not to do these things because they are expected of you, but because you respect where you are.

The third and final item I’m going to recommend to you is reverence. It may be in your belief system to look at the world as a the creation of some deity, and to feel reverence for him or her as a result of the world that you see. Personally I prefer to remove anthropomorphic creator-gods from the scene and instead go straight to the heart of the natural world. For me it is reverence for life itself, and for the bounty and diversity around me, that I bring along. I have never seen a cathedral more beautiful than a stand of Ponderosa Pines on a rocky ridge with a sapphire blue sky above them. I have never heard a song more poignant and lovely than water flowing over a bed of stones as it hurtles down a mountain. No incense can challenge the fragrance of sage on the wind. When I stand atop a rocky promontory and gaze across the miles into the heart of a mountain range I am closer to divinity than at any moment in life.

With these three items in your spiritual backpack I believe you will find yourself well prepared for your journey along whatever trail you have chosen. With your spiritual backpack added to your physical and mental ones I have confidence that your experience will be more than you could hope for, imagine, or need.

In summary

When I began writing this essay I did not know where it was going to go. At first I thought I would be getting into really granular details about the topics I had introduced to my basic guide. Starting out that seemed to be an admirable goal. As I wrote, though, I discovered that what I really needed to do was to explore wider ideas. If you’ve read this far you’ll be in a position to judge whether I did this successfully or not. Personally, I’m never one hundred percent happy with what I’ve written, but I am pleased with where this journey lead me. I hope you are too.

And now, some other people’s words

These several quotes are things that I read for inspiration. They resonate with me and with the way that I think about wilderness and nature and seek my answer to “why?” If they spark something in you, wonderful. If not, I hope you at least enjoy them.

“Why wilderness? Because we like the taste of freedom; because we like the smell of danger.” – Edward Abbey, Beyond the Wall

“We are now in the mountains and they are in us, kindling enthusiasm, making every nerve quiver, filling every pore and cell of us.” – John Muir

“We need wilderness whether or not we ever set foot in it. We need a refuge even though we may never need to go there.” – Edward Abbey

“Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wildness is a necessity; and that mountain parks and reservations are useful not only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers, but as fountains of life.” – John Muir

“The idea of wilderness needs no defense. It only needs more defenders. Remaining silent about the destruction of nature is an endorsement of that destruction.” – Edward Abbey

“No dogma taught by the present civilization seems to form so insuperable an obstacle in the way of a right understanding of the relations which culture sustains to wildness, as that which declares that the world as made especially for the uses of men. Every animal, plant, and crystal controverts it in the plainest terms. Yet it is taught from century to century as something ever new and precious, and in the resulting darkness the enormous conceit is allowed to go unchallenged.” – John Muir

“Wilderness can be defined as a place where humans enjoy the opportunity of being attacked by a wild animal.” – Edward Abbey

“Living artificially in towns, we are sickly, and never come to know ourselves.” – John Muir

“The most common form of terrorism in the USA is that carried on by bulldozers and chain saws.” – Edward Abbey

“I will follow my instincts, be myself for good or ill, and see what will be the upshot. As long as I live, I’ll hear waterfalls and birds and winds sing. I’ll interpret the rocks, learn the language of flood, storm, and the avalanche. I’ll acquaint myself with the glaciers and wild gardens, and get as near the heart of the world as I can.” – John Muir

“We need wilderness because we are wild animals. Every man needs a place where he can go crazy in peace.” – Edward Abbey

“The mountains are calling and I must go.” – John Muir