[pct-l] The hazards of hiking alone

[Mountaingoat Fraser]

Jeffrey, I love solitary walking but I also enjoy company for short spells
unless it starts to grate. Here's my mate Ed Abbey in the great *'Monkey
Wrench Gang'*:

*"The sensation of freedom was exhilarating, though tinged with a shade of
loneliness, a touch of sorrow. The old dream of total independence, beholden
to no man and no woman, floated above his days like smoke from a pipe
dream... For even Haydule sensed, when he faced the thing directly, that the
total loner would go insane. Was insane. Somewhere in the depths of
solitude, beyond wildness and freedom, lay the trap of madness."*

~ (Mr) Mountaingoat, Brisbane, Australia


On Thu, Oct 1, 2009 at 1:12 AM, Jeffrey Olson <jolson at olc.edu> wrote:

> I have hiked alone for years as well.  I've learned to trust my
> experience rather than equipment.  I camp within shouting distance of
> the trail.
>
>
> But the greatest hazard I found was my own inner voices - the sense of
> time stretching endlessly with no purpose or meaning as the wilderness
> unfolds.  I love to hear how others can hike day after day alone and
> revel in the solitude.  I thought at one point I enjoyed it too, but
> found it just too hard emotionally.  The best part of my long section
> hikes have been those days when I meet up with someone with whom I can
> laugh and tell stories and argue philosophy.
>
>
> I used to think those who huddled in the "pack" for social nurturance
> were not evolved.  If that's so, then I'm not.  I am not bent to spend
> that much time alone, although I am bent to live alone and spend most of
> my time alone.  I need the touch of human contact, just a little touch,
> to live in relative balance and harmony.
>
>
> Experience hiking will shed the learned fears.  What that shedding opens
> up is so individual that it can only be revealed in story, how one
> narrates one's life...
>
>
> Jeffrey Olson
> Martin, SD
>
>
>
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-- 
And That's All the Goat Wrote