I have struggled this week, trying to think of a topic worth sharing. I’m not sure why this has been so hard. Perhaps it is because I just got home from another hike. I was on Isle Royale for a 6-day backpacking trip across the island. It was amazing! Still, when I get home from a long hike there are so many things to do.
- Catch up on all the household tasks that have been waiting for me.
- Clean all my gear AND MYSELF from the sweat and grime of the trail.
- Recover from the pains and stiffness caused by hiking 10 hours each day with a 25-pound backpack.
- And edit all the video clips from the trip into some sort of a story that attempts to entertain and share the beauties of the trail on my YouTube channel – Wandering Monk.
If you haven’t watched any of these videos, please look for me on YouTube and subscribe to the channel. It’s free to you and really helps me a lot!
The backpacking trip certainly took a lot of energy out of me this time, but I don’t thing that is the whole reason for my brain freeze around this podcast. I toyed with a lot of ideas. I could share discoveries from one of my recent hikes. Should I talk about the geological history of the Flint Hills in Kansas? Perhaps I could describe some of the trail towns that I visited along that 94-mile stretch from Osawatomie to Council Grove. Should I talk about the Elroy to Sparta Trail in Wisconsin? It is another “Rails to Trials” journey that includes 3 old train tunnels that are both eerie and fascinating. I could share something of my latest adventure on Isle Royale. This remote wilderness island requires a 6-hour ferry ride into the depths of Lake Superior to access it. There are more moose than people on the island, and the wolves are the only apex predators living there to cull the moose population. I saw 12 wolves swimming across one of the interior lakes on the island. Were they scouting out new hunting grounds? I hiked about 54 miles from end to end and spent five full days soaking in the beauty. Isle Royale is the least visited national park in the lower 48, but the rangers are fond of saying it is the most revisited national park. I don’t know, but it is certainly a place that I want to see again.
I mulled over these topics, but nothing stuck. Nothing stood out as a lasting interest that you might enjoy. One thing that I’m learning about podcasts is it feels like a one-way conversation. Even if I share an interview with someone else on the show, I get no feedback from the most important participant in this discussion – you the listener. I feel like I’m punching in the dark and hoping to share something that you enjoy, find valuable, and are glad you spent the time listening to my babbling. Otherwise, this is an exercise in vanity. Vanity is something that I detest in myself and don’t want to practice, especially in front of you. So, what is something to share?
Well, it came to me this morning. I guess the seed was planted last night when my wife and I were talking. She asked a simple question. It’s a question she’s asked several times in several ways. However, last night the simplicity of her question made its way through my thick head and resonated. This morning we were out for a short walk on a nearby trail around a huge lake called “Big Hill.” This lake is a recreational project created by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
As we walked, her question distilled in my mind, and I thought “Yes! This is the topic for this week. Like I said, the question is simple. She asked, “What makes a hiker?” I think she actually asked what makes me want to hike, but I like “what makes a hiker” better.
What makes a hiker? Is it background? Body type? Gender? Experience? Something else?
When I think of my own background, I was raised in the country and my earliest memories are of walking in the woods with my father and brothers. Until I was five, we lived in an old house that got its water from a creek that was about a mile away. There was a contraption, we called it the “cistern” that used the water flowing along the creek to create a siphon action and pump water from the creek to the house. There was no water treatment, no additives (except what nature added itself), and no filters. We got what we got. Sometimes mom would shout at dad when a crawfish would get sucked through the pipes and plop out of the faucet into the kitchen sink. This was country living in the sticks of Alabama.
This living made the woods feel like an extension of our home. Sort of like a huge recreation room. We continued to live in the woods as we grew older. We hunted, fished, explored, and found solitude in those woods.
The Army introduced me to a different way of “walking in the woods.” It certainly was not as pleasant or serene, but I learned important skills of survival. I learned to use a compass, read a map, and maneuver through unfamiliar places. Those skills continue to prove useful today. Now I have returned to the serenity of the trails.
Earl Shaffer had a similar background. The first person to thru-hike the entire Appalachian Trail was an introverted man. Maurice Forrester described him as a loner, a poet, and a singer. Forrester goes on to say, “but he [Shaffer] is also part of the song.” I believe that brief, but profound statement is key to the overall answer to my wife’s question, “What makes a hiker?”
Earl Shaffer had returned home from the emotional wounds of combat during World War II. He sought a place to heal. He discovered it on the trail. Forrester concludes, “Some people are just destined to be wanderers. Earl Shaffer is one of those.” You can read more in Earl Shaffer’s wonderful book, “Walking with Spring.” If you consider hiking the Appalachian Trail, you really need to read it. If you have found yourself on the A.T. you need to read it too.
So does background make a hiker? Well, I have met hikers from the Burroughs of New York City to the swamps of Louisiana. City dwellers and country folk. All successful backpackers, all wonderful people. Their backgrounds as varied as their faith, race, or ethnicities. So varied that the only thing held in common was their passion to hike. Some call that passion “Wanderlust” an uncommon drive to explore, to see, to experience the beauties of nature. I don’t think background is the key to what makes a hiker.
What about body type? I recall my 10th grade year of high school. Our little school had a fledgling football program. I’m talking American Football for my UK and European friends. Football is a contact sport! My friends played on our high school team. I wanted to be included, so I tried out for the team AND made it! That really isn’t saying much, we needed anyone willing to be yelled at by Coach Rhoden. So, if you endured you were in.
I weighed about 110 pounds soaking wet. Coach made me a half back. Probably because half of me was just my backside. I still recall my first (and last) game. My friend was quarterback. He called a play for me to get the ball, run behind the big kid who was my blocker, and score the winning touchdown. That was the call.
When he handed me the ball, I put my head down to run behind my big blocker. The problem started when my big blocker met up with a much bigger defender from the other team. That monster batted my blocker to one side, hit me in the chest and straightened me up from my crouched running position. Just then a second defender, as big as the first, hit me straight in the chest and drove me into the ground. All I saw were stars and blood showering the air before my face. Somehow, I managed to hold onto the ball, but that was the only saving grace to my short but stellar football career. I crawled off the field and swore to never do that again. I did not have the body type for this contact sport.
I have seen all kinds of body types on the trail; thin and large, tall and short, muscular and frail. I’ve seen each body type be defeated by the trail and crawl away never to return. I’ve also seen each body type complete remarkable feats; climbing tall peaks, descending into deep gaps, fording rushing water crossings, and trudging over arid plains. I don’t think body type makes a hiker.
Gender? Well, that’s just silly. Men and women hike all the time. My heroes include Earl Shaffer and Nimblewill Nomad, Grandma Gatewood and Dixie (from Homemade Wanderlust). Men and women have been hiking trails for as long as there have been trails. Over the past several years, it appears more young women are taking to the trails. I like seeing that. In my latest trek, my hiking buddy was a young woman, fellow soldier, and an Army veterinarian. She is a major, and an awesome hiker. No, gender doesn’t make a hiker.
What about experience? Well, experience certainly makes someone a better hiker.
Meredith Eberhart is known to his friends as “Sunny” and to the hiking community as “Nimblewill Nomad.” I hope that I have earned the privilege to know him by any of those names. He may be the most experienced hiker living today. Sunny has logged more than 30,000 miles on trails all over North America. He is a triple crowner plus plus! Not only has he hiked the Pacific Crest, Continental Divide, and Appalachian Trails, he hiked all of the trails of westward expansion, as well as trails circumferencing the United States. He hiked from Key West Florida to Newfoundland, Canada TWICE and is the oldest person to hike the Appalachian Trail, completing it for a third time in 2021 at the age of 83. Sunny doesn’t think “hiker” is a title earned by experience. When the newest, youngest person steps on the trail and catches the fever to continue to explore, then that person is a hiker. No, experience isn’t key to making one a hiker.
It must be something else? Perhaps you have an opinion. I’d love to hear it. You could comment on my latest video or email me directly at dan@wanderingmonkhikes.com. A two-way communication would be nice.
Let me tell you what I think “makes a hiker.” I think it goes back to what Forrester wrote about Shaffer, “but he is also part of the song.” What a poetic description! Deep down in our soul, there is a yearning, a desire to see what we have yet to see. The old German word “Fernweh” sums it up. Its meaning is to be homesick for that place where you have never been. There is an imprint in the soul, a coordinate implanted in the heart that yearns to be satisfied, that craves to be fulfilled. We roam paths and trails, immersed in nature, witnessing creation, realizing that creation includes us, and desiring to be with the Creator of it all. It’s beautiful, awkward, scary, and exhilarating all at the same time. When we taste even a drip of it – we are transformed into Hikers.
At least that’s my opinion.
Let’s go walking – together!