Date: 2007-11-17
To: Hiking philosophy
Miles today: 0.0

Sooo, why on earth would someone write a journal entry on the philosophy of hiking?? It¢s just walking, eating, and sleeping right? Yes you are right! Those are certainly good questions, but what I want to touch on is the reason WHY someone would want to walk, eat, sleep, and repeat for 5-6 months. This is such a simple question, with so many valid answers. I¢ll do the best I can to give you my reasons without surpassing the page count of a Harry Potter book.A lot of trail journals pin point a reason for hiking the trail, they often cite an escape from society, a need for a challenge, or finding a simpler lifestyle. After reading several journals, and adding in a bit of my own personal experience, I think there is a significant amount of overlap between these answers. I know I cannot point to one of these reasons as the keystone of my passion to hike, but I think I can identify a common theme between them that has fueled my passion to attempt a long distance hike. That theme is TRUTH. In essence, I am searching for truth. However, truth doesn¢t necessarily need to be logical. While the reasons above are certainly valid and all apply to me, I think that the ILLOGICAL ¢reasons¢ carry a lot of truth as well. By definition, I can¢t really explain why these ¢reasons¢ appeal to me, but that¢s the point. I don¢t need to explain them. I need to follow them. For example, a long distance hiker is moving and stagnant at the same time, suffering yet happy, and achieving an incredible task by doing something incredibly simple.¢ Sooo, now that I¢ve established that I am searching for truth, I¢ll throw out the disclaimer that I certainly don¢t expect to be cleansed of all things wrong and unholy, and consequently have an epiphany and become a wise man. But I do hope to learn more about myself, perhaps confirm some of this ¢theory¢ that I am blabbering about, and let this experience take me wherever it leads.Ok, that last paragraph took a ridiculous amount of time to write. It¢s probably because I was trying to write rationally about irrational things. Oh well. This is where I skip around and talk about other philosophy type things, even though I don¢t like that word. The last few entries have taken a while to write, and I¢m not sure that¢s a good thing. If you haven¢t figured this out, I¢m an engineer, not a nobel laureate. I cant rip off consistently coherent entries, and I am writing this mainly for myself, and my mind wanders far more than my writing has up to this point. I want this journal to reflect how I think, not a lab report. So, welcome to my mind: Ultralite Backpacking makes a ton of sense to me. It is based on simplicity, or ¢truth¢ if you will, rather than happiness. It is based on NEED, not want. How did this trend emerge in a world increasingly based on the ¢more is better train, safety supercedes freedom¢ line of thought? I think that truth has a lot to do with it, and the fact that like me, many long distance hikers are not satisfied with the society they live in. But I think it also has to do with the fact that in long distance backpacking, less stuff coincides with more happiness. Think about it, there are few activities that can claim that. Backpackers, especially long distance, carry as little weight as possible because unlike most activities, they can actually FEEL the weight physically. We pay for everything we decide to bring. If I am going to haul something for over 2000 miles, it better be worthwhile. Weight is completely quantitative, tangible, and measurable. It completely changed the way people thought about gear. Both gear manufacturers and hikers started to think long and hard about what they actually NEED, and what is nice to have. Hikers figured out that they wanted less burden, and manufacturers want to sell. Before, gear manufacturers were dictating what they wanted to sell, and hikers would buy whatever the manufacturer deemed important, or what they could sell to maximize profit. Now, the ultralite hiker dictates what he/she needs, and the manufacturers are responding quite admirably with solutions. Prices can still get high, but it is certainly a step in the right direction. I also love that ultralite hiking has evolved itself into a consistent solution. By that I mean an equilibrium of sorts. Hiking has always had a consistent solution (traditional backpacking) by evidence of people having backpacked in that way for hundreds of years. It was constrained by the wilderness and technological constraints of the time. Still today, people don heavy boots, ¢bombproof¢ backpacks, big tents, extra clothing, gps tracking devices in case they get lost, etc etc. However technology and creative thinking have allowed a new solution: Ultralite backpacking. In my opinion, it becomes a full operation to convert, because pretty much everything requires replacement. But, it all fits together perfectly. For example, you cant just decide to wear trail runners instead of boots and go hiking. Trail runners require that you don¢t have 60 lbs of gear on your pack, because your feet wont be able to handle it. You need to think about the climate you will be in, and how often (if at all) you can resupply. Take out comforts, because most of your time will be used hiking, where the most comfortable thing to do is carry nothing at all. Figure out a shelter system that works. A sleep system. A layering system to keep warm. A cooking system. First aid/repair. These systems should overlap. For example, my sleep system and my shelter system overlap a lot. I am carrying a bivy/tarp combination. (a bivy, or bivouac sack, is a waterproof/breathable piece cover for a sleeping bag) I don¢t need a tent floor because my bivy serves that purpose. I don¢t need a tent for wind/bug protection because the bivy cuts out convective heat loss, and is bugproof if I need it to be. The tarp is my main waterproofing, is set up using my trekking poles, but allows infinite venting unlike a tent. The bivy also adds 5-10 degrees my sleeping bag range. Therefore, I can use a higher degree sleeping bag, and save weight. It all fits together. I can cut my closed cell foam pad shorter, because I know that I can use my pack as an insulative pad over my feet. I can carry less clothing than a traditional backpacker because I can walk faster and further for more of the day than a traditional backpacker, thereby generating more heat to keep me warm.Another concept of the trail that appeals to me greatly is the fact that the hiker must adapt himself/herself to the trail, not the other way around. You are walking where the trail goes, not trying to control. If it decides to go up a bigass hill, I will go up that bigass hill. The trail doesn¢t care whether you want it to rain or not, it will rain whenever it pleases. All the hiker can do is change his/her attitude toward the rain, not the rain itself. This is nature¢s forest, hikers are just guests. While there are certainly exceptions to this for legitimate safety concerns, such as putting on a rain jacket when it is 35 degrees and raining, a hiker is letting the trail define him, not the other way around. Ok that¢s probably gonna me my last ¢this is why I think what I think¢ entry (I think). Future entries will probably get a lot less bookish, shorter, and require a lot less thought. Woohoo!