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View Full Version : Figuring out why I do it!



MedicineMan
01-13-2003, 09:24
Hello Blazers-white,yellow, brown, blue and any color in between.
I think on this weekends hike (report in trip report section) I have put in a nutshell in my mind why I love/crave/fantasize about getting on the trail. It all has to do with dreams. Dreams are therapeutic, they help us work out in a primordial way the problems we deal with every day at home, at work, and the interpersonal conflicts we have with systems, co-workers, lovers, friends and anything else you can think of. It all gets so complicated. But sometimes my dreams and the REM state can only heal so far, so much, sometimes our lives (mine in particular) are just too complicated for even dreams to smooth out. When I hike I cannot think about the hospital, the orders, the calculations, the formularies, the personalities I have to deal with. On a hike I cannot think about my building project at home-the sheet rock, the finishing, the carpet, the trim. When on the trail I think of simple things like where my foot will land next, where the trail leads after the next corner, how the trail will play out at the end or how it will go over a series of bumps on its way to a firetower or road. I am forced to focus on staying warm, staying dry, staying fed, keeping water from freezing. I have no room in my mind for that other real world and its pressures. The trail is a self-induced pressure much like the timetable I have put on myself in which to complete the finishing of the sheet rock but there is a demonstrable difference-the sheet rock really can wait, the carpet really can be put off. Getting out of sweat soaked clothes while on a ridge getting blasted with wind at 18 degrees and dropping can't. The sheet rock finishing job doesnt decide whether I will live or not but my actions on the trail can. Which is more real, which is the better test of my character-a screw head that shows after the wall is painted or my arriving at the take out point?

Blue Jay
01-13-2003, 13:56
One of my favorite transition times on the trail is when I start dreaming with a pack on in the dream. Then I know I'm completely cured of MoMo society.