[pct-l] Hiking Speed

[Ron Moak]

Unfortunately the whole debate about hiking speed is a bit of a canard.
There are things that enhance our perceptions of the world around us and
those that detract. Hiking speed has a best a marginal effect on either. If
you wish to debate things that do significantly affect our perceptions
that's fine.

I'd recommend three topics that have a direct bearing upon our appreciation
of the hike. They are misery, knowledge and curiosity. I'd expect there may
be more but these probably have the greatest impact.

There's nothing like a little misery to make hiking a downer. Whether
carrying too much weight; being too hot, cold or wet; or anything that make
us question our sanity, misery makes us withdrawn. Our world shrinks until
it extends no more than a few feet in front of us. Time slows, sounds
diminish to the point we hear little more than pounding of our heart.
Clearly anything that can combat misery can give us a positive outlook.

A little knowledge can do wonders to enhance our perceptions. A photographer
can frame a sunset in a drop of water resting on an alpine flower. An artist
can see past the details into the soul of a mountain landscape. A geologist
can see a million years of turmoil in a single rock. A botanist see the
constant struggle of plants to survive both against the elements and
competing plants. An hydrologist can scan the soils and rocks, peaks and
valleys of a landscape and chart the flow of water, both visible and
underground. As a trained Forester, I look at the dynamic nature of
environment, how fires burn and what's likely to burn next; the effects of
logging, roads, trails on the environment; and the changes in forest over
generations as one species of trees gives way to the next in the natural
progression of a forests life. 

One doesn't need a college degree to learn some basics that will open up
backcountry in new and exciting ways. The simple curiosity of a child will
do. That curiosity is too often discarded along the path to adulthood. 

Looking to false debates that serve no other purpose than to divide us, does
little to dampen the misery or pass on the joy experienced by so many who
take the time to walk on the wild side of life.

Ron