View Full Version : "fellowship with the wilderness"
maxNcathy
01-21-2008, 12:30
Recently I have been thinking about what is written on the shirt my partner bought for me in Damascus..
"Appalachian Trail.. for those who seek fellowship with the wilderness"
What does this mean? What could this or should this mean to someone hiking?
Pedaling Fool
01-21-2008, 12:47
Just some hippy crap, they don't even know what it means. Most just say it, but there are people that do feel a fellowship, more than others, to the wilderness, people like John Muir...
I don't feel anything real special(supernatural) about the wilderness, but I do feel a special awe when I think about the universe.
David S.
01-21-2008, 13:13
I think I feel a certain need to go to the wilderness if I haven't been in a while. Its like I miss it or something. The wilderness just has a way of calming me and escaping the complexity of life. Sometimes I feel the outdoors as being similar to a good friend that I begin to miss if I spend to much time away. So "fellowship" ...I can kind of grasp what the writer was trying to say.
It was coined by the guy used as a model for the plaque(sp?) on Springer.
Kirby
After about a month on the trail I understood why the old time bible guys would go to the mountains. I felt so close to God on the trail. When you get rid of all the crap that comes with daily living and just think of water, food, and shelter then thinks start to make sence. Its hard to explain, its something you have to find for youself.
scavenger
01-21-2008, 14:30
Fellowship- noun-
1: companionship, company
2 a: community of interest, activity, feeling, or experience b: the state of being a fellow or associate
3: a company of equals or friends, association
4: the quality or state of being comradely
Sounds pretty straightforward to me. Just another way of saying "for those who seek the company of nature."
4eyedbuzzard
01-21-2008, 14:32
It was coined by the guy used as a model for the plaque(sp?) on Springer.
Kirby
The guy on the plaque is Warner Hall, and the phrase "A footpath for those who seek fellowship with the wilderness", is attributed to the sculpture, G.H. Noble or a group effort amongst GATC folks, http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:OH0Dz4gjG0gJ:www.trailforums.com/detail.cfm%3FentryID%3D48872+warner+hall+hiker+pla que&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=3&gl=us When Benton MacKaye saw it, he thought it wonderfully summed up the purpose of the AT.
http://books.google.com/books?id=dKu4N9_ZPS0C&pg=PA216&lpg=PA216&dq=warner+hall+hiker&source=web&ots=E-ypVS7DNz&sig=5x4U2zIPsalD6Z5YpnECVMy9rR0
Pedaling Fool
01-21-2008, 14:45
Most people (NOT ALL) I see use the term "One with Nature" or similar terms such as "fellowship...." Are the same people who rely so much on the modern conviences and do the most slack-packing, but yet complain about green-house gasess... That was my point, but there are a few, that talk-the-talk and walk-the-walk.
Also, I think many confuse the "Fellowship...." feeling with the "In the Zone" feeling, as discussed on this thread.
http://www.whiteblaze.net/forum/showthread.php?t=31919
..who said, "I am two with nature."
Lone Wolf
01-21-2008, 16:01
"Appalachian Trail.. for those who seek fellowship with the wilderness"
What does this mean? What could this or should this mean to someone hiking?
"Appalachian Trail .. for those who seek a patch, certificte and bragging rights"
dessertrat
01-21-2008, 16:02
Naw. It's just a fancy way of saying "for people who like being in the woods."
warraghiyagey
01-21-2008, 16:03
They probably saw it in the book 'Zen for Dummies.'
scavenger
01-21-2008, 16:16
You guys who think its hippie/zen stuff, refer to my post with the definition of "fellowship" because you don't seem to know what the word means.
After about a month on the trail I understood why the old time bible guys would go to the mountains. I felt so close to God on the trail. When you get rid of all the crap that comes with daily living and just think of water, food, and shelter then thinks start to make sence. Its hard to explain, its something you have to find for youself.
Amen.
I was just going to leave it like that, but the edit widnows wants me to lengthen the message to at least 7 characters! Which characters should I choose? LW? Sgt Rock? ATTroll? Dixicritter?
warraghiyagey
01-21-2008, 16:22
You guys who think its hippie/zen stuff, refer to my post with the definition of "fellowship" because you don't seem to know what the word means.
Wow, no offense meant.:( And i think I fall into the definition of hippie and i try to understand Zen concepts. But I've not missed an opportunity for fellowship of any variety in life, like right here chatting amiably with others.:)
Peace
maxNcathy
01-22-2008, 10:43
I think I feel a certain need to go to the wilderness if I haven't been in a while. Its like I miss it or something. The wilderness just has a way of calming me and escaping the complexity of life. Sometimes I feel the outdoors as being similar to a good friend that I begin to miss if I spend to much time away. So "fellowship" ...I can kind of grasp what the writer was trying to say.
Your thoughts do resonate with my take on the outdoors.
"similar to a good friend.."
thanks
scavenger
01-22-2008, 10:47
Wow, no offense meant.:( And i think I fall into the definition of hippie and i try to understand Zen concepts. But I've not missed an opportunity for fellowship of any variety in life, like right here chatting amiably with others.:)
Peace
Heh yeah I guess I sounded like kind of a dick. Sorry :o
Lion King
01-22-2008, 11:59
Its different for everyone Im guessing.
Some dont 'get' that at all.
But for me, I think it means that time of solitude when you are somewhere sitting in the shade of a tree exhausted midday after numerous climbs and your body is cleansed of modern toxins and you are drinking water right from the mountain and not hearing anything but the wind the stream the birds.
and some form of comfort that cant be put into words hits you to your very core and you feel a level of happines that cant be replaced by anything other then being out there.
then some A-holes cell phone rings on the Switchback below you....:D
Pedaling Fool
01-22-2008, 12:57
...then some A-holes cell phone rings on the Switchback below you....:D
Unfortunately that's becoming more a common experience.
NorthCountryWoods
01-22-2008, 13:02
"Appalachian Trail.. for those who seek fellowship with the wilderness"
...then some A-holes cell phone rings on the Switchback below you....:D
Sorry, but the author of the patch was off his rocker. Like Lion King points out....the AT is anything but wilderness.
Definition-
Main Entry:wil·der·ness http://www.m-w.com/images/audio.gif (http://javascript%3Cb%3E%3C/b%3E:popWin%28%27/cgi-bin/audio.pl?wilder03.wav=wilderness%27%29)Pronunciati on: \ˈwil-dər-nəs\ Function:noun Etymology:Middle English, from wildern wild, from Old English wilddēoren of wild beastsDate:13th century 1 a (1): a tract or region uncultivated and uninhabited by human beings(2): an area essentially undisturbed by human activity together with its naturally developed life community
Captain Slider
01-22-2008, 14:28
I am working on a projest and need to know the size of the plaque on Springer. I have been there and have pictures, but I am not sure of the size.. would one say 20x40 inches..??
then some A-holes cell phone rings on the Switchback below you....:D
Your looking at an animal (bear, deer, fox...whatever), silently basking in the solitude after a good leg of blazes and any of those other mentally refreshing endeavors the path give us. THEN you hear it, I have even heard mini boom boxes that some lash to the top of one member of the groups backpack.
Tipi Walter
01-23-2008, 10:15
I think I feel a certain need to go to the wilderness if I haven't been in a while. Its like I miss it or something. The wilderness just has a way of calming me and escaping the complexity of life. Sometimes I feel the outdoors as being similar to a good friend that I begin to miss if I spend to much time away. So "fellowship" ...I can kind of grasp what the writer was trying to say.
After about a month on the trail I understood why the old time bible guys would go to the mountains. I felt so close to God on the trail. When you get rid of all the crap that comes with daily living and just think of water, food, and shelter then thinks start to make sence. Its hard to explain, its something you have to find for youself.
These quotes are what comes to my mind when I think of wilderness and why I go out into it. I feel many aspects of wilderness(the wind, waterfalls, the cold, snow, ridges) to be my "children", and if I don't go visit regularly I'm just an absent father and a dead-beat Dad. I'm greedy and need more and more of it, feeling I'll be missing out on the best Miss Nature has to offer. She'll blast us with a good winter storm and then ask, "But where was Tipi Walt? Wasn't he supposed to be out here with Me?" So, it's a personal thing, for sure. Much is expected of me, etc.
And the old Bible boys, guys like John the Baptist and the Desert Fathers(not to mention the countless wandering sadhus/swamis of Hindu fame),all went out to "wilderness" to seek God in solitude amidst a calming landscape with some amount of beauty.
My theory is this, that God loves wilderness but humans try to tame it. Books could be written on why this is so, but basically I see the whole known universe as wilderness, it's wild up thar on Mars, for instance, wild and hot and cold and windy. So God must love it if he created so much of it. And the earth at one time was just as wild until the human animal, so out of synch with the other animals, opened some kind of mysterious Pandora's Box(you tell me), and just recently in our human history we thereby decided to fight and try to tame this wilderness. We quickly lost our wisdom and ability to live sustainably on the planet.
In the old days wilderness was all there was, but now we speak of "going out to wilderness", as if our paved and citified world is the only reality. But I think our human cities and paved over fields and all the rest are very recent and very temporary blips on the earthly scene, always subject to change and soon replaced by wilderness. Look, the blue-green jewel we call our home is stuck in the vast wilderness of space, and is flying thru wilderness all around.
Doesn't fellowship with wilderness mean you are hiking the CDT or the PCT?
:p