[pct-l] Mental Health Event for Kickoff

[River Malcolm]

Ah ... Beautiful wisdom beautifully expressed.  Thank you. Though I haven't hiked PCT yet -- and only plan a series of section hikes-- your words resonate deeply with my experience walking the Camino in Spain last spring. 

Thanks for putting into words thoughts that were still germinating in the dark in my mind. 

River

Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 6, 2013, at 12:15 PM, "Mary Kwart" <mkwart at gci.net> wrote:

> I think this would be valuable. I found that returning from a long
> hike was similar in re-adjustment to returning from a firefighting
> assignment. It was a let down to return to civilization after weeks of
> strenuous physical labor, working with others toward a common goal, no
> workaday worries, plenty of adrenaline rush--the only concern on a
> fire was the physical job at hand. After returning home, having to
> deal with ordinary daily living was stressful because physical
> activity and camaraderie of working toward a finite and easily defined
> goal provides a stress release not available in the often nebulous
> ordinary world of ill defined goals. I don't know what it is about
> being outside for a large part of the day--but stresses seemed to have
> a chance to evaporate a lot more easily than when confined at work or
> at home--John Muir's quote about cares dropping off like autumn leaves
> in the wilderness It seems like the opposite of post traumatic stress
> disorder--it is post wonderful experience disorder.
> 
> --Fireweed
> 
> 
> _______________________________________________
> Pct-L mailing list
> Pct-L at backcountry.net
> To unsubcribe, or change options visit:
> http://mailman.backcountry.net/mailman/listinfo/pct-l
> 
> List Archives:
> http://mailman.backcountry.net/pipermail/pct-l/
> All content is copyrighted by the respective authors. 
> Reproduction is prohibited without express permission.