Why We Hike
What make someone leave a warm, dry home behind, give up the TV and reading lamp, quit their corporate job and its steady paycheck, and go far from their wife and children? Why trade so much comfort for a million steps, carrying a heavy pack, up and down mountains, through rivers, and rain, and snow, for sleeping on rocks and in mud, for eating second rate food, for dealing with pain and sickness while forever hiking on?
A major reason that I hike is that I like to think. A long distance hike gives me days, weeks, even months to ponder the intractable problems of life and of the world.
I find that hiking is conducive to such thinking so long as the walking and routefinding are not so difficult that they require most of my concentration.
And I usually hike alone, mostly because I like my contemplation to be as uninterrupted as possible, to let my thinking end when thoughts mature. Long distance hiking means that I won't be interrupted by getting back to the car at the end of the day, or by someone else's issues.
Some of my thinking is about problems outside of hiking, such as how I should live my life when not walking. Some is plain meditation, with little forming of conscious thought, but with plenty of relaxation and clearing of the mind. Hiking itself provides me with puzzles to solve, such as why an ecosystem has changed, or what brought about the present geology and geography of the locale.
My love of thinking affects my choices of trails to hike on. For example, on the heavily travelled Appalachian Trail, there would be more interruptions than on less populated routes, so I prefer the solitude of the other trails. The Pacific Crest Trail crosses many different types of ecosystems and geological formations. I like to think about these differing natural worlds, so routes like the PCT, which visit widely varying terrain, are very interesting to me. My walks in Europe passed through many historic sites, and I enjoyed thinking about their meaning in the development of our civilization. I pick my trails to provide interesting things to ponder.
Some people hike for the challenge. Perhaps they perceive that Appalachian Trail or the Continental Divide Trail is the hardest hike that can be done, and for their own satisfaction want to complete it.
Others hike for ego: They want the bragging rights that come with finishing the big trails.
There are hikers who do the popular trails to socialize. Hiking near home may be a solitary, perhaps even lonely affair, but on the AT and, to a lesser extent on the PCT, there are plenty of other hikers to talk with. And in addition to other hikers, there are all sorts of other fascinating folks in the trail towns. I meet a lot of interesting people on every long hike I do. And I find that it's the long distance hiking that opens people up to these great conversations. During these long walks, types of people who never talk to me in my regular life engage me in conversations of depths and regarding subjects that I just don't normally experience.
Some people do these long walks to escape from their normal lives long enough to get over some traumatic life event, like the death of a loved one or a divorce, etcetera.
I've found that a completed long distance hike is a life changing experience. After a week in the woods, I come to understand that a shower, or even washing my hands with hot water and soap, or a warm, dry room and bed is a great luxury, not something to be taken for granted. In a relentless quest to reduce the weight on one's back, over time most hikers eliminate much gear they once thought essential. At the same time, they figure out how to do more and more things with the reduced set of gear. As the cliché goes, eventually, they can do virtually anything with almost nothing. Simply completing a hike so hard that few would even consider attempting it gives one a sense of achievement and ability that may not be available to one who has never really tried. Spiritually, too, one changes as the time to ponder and meditate yields its rewards. Long distance hiking changes one's perspective, and that alone seems to me to be worth pursuing.
Some people do long distance hikes partially to fill time. They may be retired, or be students looking for a fun, fulfilling way to spend a summer, far more enriching and rewarding than whatever they might do otherwise.
And if they need to fill time without spending a great deal of money, hiking may be a great deal for them. Consider: Hikers may not need to pay rent or mortgages, may not have utility bills, may not need to pay for cars and gasoline, may not pay to entertain themselves in bars, restaurants, movies, and etcetera. So one can entertain one's self quite inexpensively for months by walking the long trails.
For me, a huge reason to do long hikes is that I get to spend much of my life doing things the best way I know. In regular life, we may trend towards mediocrity because of the compromises forced by coworkers, families, friends, and etcetera. But when I hike alone, if I find an interesting site, I can explore it until it no longer teaches me or holds my interest. I can stop when I feel a great photograph may be available. In short, I can do my very best to do the hike the right way. In my life, opportunities to do things the best way possible seem rare and precious.
Another reason I love long hikes is that they can cross the boundaries of many natural systems. Wildlife that live in an area of brush differs from that of a forest, and at the boundary, still more species may live because they can access resources from both areas. It's interesting to me to observe nature as I cross these boundaries, and to think about why and how the available resources allow animals to live there. Geology, plants, water, and many other things also change on a sufficiently long journey. This, I feel, is a major way in which long distance hikes transcend day hiking and other short walks.
I'm sure that every long distance hiker walks for some combination of some of the reasons above, and also for some other reasons I haven't considered here.