[pct-l] Older Hikers--Louis Lamour quote

[Edward Anderson]

Hi Fireweed, 
 
Just don't buy in to the "Big Miles" culture. HYOH is a valid attitude. I plan to take my time this summer and will average fewer than 10 miles per day while riding. I will take a layover day (or two) whenever I find a beautiful place to camp with good fishing and plenty of graze for my horse. Wish I didn't have to bring Bear Cans through the Sierra. I have two - one for my food, and the other to hold extra feed for my horse.
 
MendoRider-Hiker
 

________________________________
 From: "mkwart at gci.net" <mkwart at gci.net>
To: smr at calelderfirm.com; mendoridered at yahoo.com; pct-l at backcountry.net 
Sent: Friday, June 8, 2012 7:07 PM
Subject: Older Hikers--Louis Lamour quote
  
I don't know why it's so hard to slow down hiking. I am determined to pursue it, though. Mindfulness as a concept is an important tool to do that. There is a book called "The Mindful Hiker" that deals with this. But I still get caught up in gaging the success of my hiking day in number of miles traversed. Everyone is doing everything faster and it's a hard trend to buck. especially since many people are young that are getting into long distance hiking and they will naturally go faster and be stronger. The only thing stopping me from going long distances in the 70's was a 65 pound pack. Now If i was getting into backpacking things would be a lot lighter.

I was a graduate student at the University of Fairbanks in Cross Cultural Studies, basically Native Studies. One of the books we had to read for a traditional knowledge class was titled, "The Earth is Faster Now: Indigenous Observations of Arctic environmental Change". No longer can traditional knowledge predict weather and environmental changes like it could in the past. Everything IS faster now--and we are reacting to that fact. I, for one, would like to slow down, but how do you do it when caught in the maelstrom of confusion that is our present society?

My last hike on the Arizona Trail brought the issue to a forefront for me--I was hiking more but enjoying it less. I was like a barn soured horse heading for camp at the end of the day. I don't know the answer, but I am going to try to hike slower. We need a movement in hiking like the Slow Food movement.

--Fireweed