Brutus, Why Do We Hike?

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

– Henry David Thoreau, Walden

There are things which you don’t do yourself. They just happen to you. Like birth or death. Or like the continuum called life.

I hike. I travel to places. And it was never a question before, until someone asked me, “Why do you hike?”

And then it dawned on me that the answer has never been simple. Or was it too simple to be expressed in words?

The mortals who dwell with fancy gears and pick farther destinations are said to ‘Escape to the Nature’. But what are they really trying to ‘escape’ from?

I could conjure a zillion answers to the question, “Why do we hike?”

• May be because we like to be out there doing something fun, not tasked in different rooms or swallowed whole by the routine of the daily grind.
• May be because neither of us were born with a silver spoon shoved up our... noses.  Hiking is cheap. It costs gas, sometimes food, an occasional permission fee or equipment upgrade. That's it. We could literally hike many times for the amount it would cost us to take you out to eat once.
• May be because it's good to feel like a kid again.  All the responsibilities of growing up ---- yeah, one day you'll understand.
• May be because it feels great to accomplish something using our feet for what God intended them to be used for.  That'd be walking, by the way, not holding down the coffee table.
• May be because we have the opportunity to relish in the glory of the creation - the grass, the fields, the trees, the flora, the fauna, and the complexity yet the simplicity of nature.
• And last, because we like to.  It is enjoyable to us. Because out there, in the wild, we are free.

I think we seek the isolation, peace, and grandeur of Nature because it reminds us that we are more than what we are.  As humans, we seem to be egocentric.  We have our cities, our societies, our systems.  But once we enter the wilderness, we are no more significant than that ant you just stepped over.  

The Transcendentalists sought Truth in Nature.  In Nature, we see ourselves.  To me, I hike to remain aware of how I am but a speck in the vast terrain of our beautiful planet.  No matter how well-prepared I am, no matter how much gear I have, no matter how strong I feel, I never forget that it is nothing compared to the grand scheme of our existence.  

I hike to remain humble.  I hike to remind myself that no matter what man accomplishes, it pales in comparison to what Nature has already accomplished. 

Some people climb for the personal challenge.  Some climb for the view.  Others climb to boast a newly summitted peak, to add a notch to their belt.  

I hike to remember my place in the world...a place no important than that eagle's nest high atop a cedar tree, or that marmot's burrow along the trail.

"Now shall I walk
or shall I ride?
"Ride," Pleasure said:
"Walk," Joy replied."
~W.H. Davies