[pct-l] Why do you hike?

[Shutterbug steiner]

I found this on a HIking BB and thought HOW COOL!  Most "normal people" just do not understand.
   
   
  why we hike 

I hiked the trail because life was made of experiences, and I hoped to have as many as possible. 

I hiked the trail because unfulfilled dreams became regrets, and I intended to have as few as possible. 

I hiked the trail to share in something unique that few have known, or will ever know. 

I hiked the trail to experience beauty, to be immersed in it. 
   
  I hiked the trail to see and to better understand the country I lived in. 
  
I hiked the trail to learn about my own limitations. 

I hiked the trail to learn about how the world worked, and to better understand my place in the natural order of things. 

I hiked the trail to avoid living a life that had already been played-out by countless others. 

I hiked the trail to think, to dream, to imagine and to reflect, unencumbered by the distractions of modern life. 

I hiked the trail to endure mental and physical hardships, and perhaps become stronger as a result. 

I hiked the trail to learn what was truly important in my life, in any life. 

I hiked the trail to separate my wants from my needs. 

I hiked the trail to meet people, and learn from them. 

I hiked the trail to live an active life rather than a passive one. 

I hiked the trail to gain perspective, not only to think, but to live "outside the box" 

I hiked the trail to be able to share the experience with others who either could not or did not care to do it themselves. 

I hiked the trail to achieve a level of physical conditioning I'd never though possible. 

I hiked the trail to experience things that could not be described with words or pictures. 

I hiked the trail to live not in fear, but in wonder.
   
    I hiked the trail to embrace "my demons" and decide to live with them rather than run away from them.
 

But I was fairly certain that even if I had told him all those things, he still would not have understood. And frankly, I would not have fully explained anything. What I really should have told him was that if he had to ask, I could never provide a sufficient answer. It was a question that could only be answered within. Finally, I thought that maybe all those things were just details, that hiking the trail wasn't a thing to be thought of that way. Maybe it wasn't what we did, rather who we were that was important. I hiked the trail not to "do something", but to "become something"... to become someone. I didn't know if that person I'd become was good or bad, but there it was, I was someone else. I thought about all those people that had been ruined by trails... The trails hadn't really ruined them at all, the trails had created them.

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