I’m a 50 year old family man, and I’ve never participated in any form of social media, unless you consider Whiteblaze a social app. I’d like to offer a lofty rationale for my abstinence, something about the vague discontent bred by Facebook and the like. But to be honest, it’s just because I don’t have an appetite for the predictable flow of carefully crafted vignettes from peripheral acquaintances. Put another way, I don’t have patience for the volume or underlying intention of the messaging.

About 10 years ago, I took a solo trip to the boundary waters, which for those of you not from the upper Midwest, is an area of about 2800 square miles in northeast Minnesota that is densely packed with lakes and has few roads. Many people fly in, and some take a canoe, but I hiked in. I spent most of that journey asking myself why I was doing it. I had a wife and kids at home who I missed from day one, and who I think missed me. But there I was, mucking around in the woods. I decided the reason I was doing it was because most people either can’t or won’t, which wasn’t a very good reason.

To be clear, I'm not saying that's why people hike solo. I'm saying that's why I was hiking solo, and it was a bad reason. When I was honest with myself, I saw that I was just lonely and uncomfortable in my own skin, because I was insecure and prone to obsessing. That was my last solo outing.

Since then my older son has also become an avid backpacker and bikepacker, and we’ve logged thousands of miles together all over the country. If you are on Whiteblaze, then you get it. We’ve all experienced the highs and lows, and looking back, even the lows make us smile.

Now here comes my point. I shared all of those experiences with my son. Any time I experience beauty alone, to me it feels wasted, like it’s just locked in my head and I can’t give it to anyone. I can tell people about it, but many of you know how that goes. Once you’ve been there, about the best you can do is encourage others to go see it for themselves, because words and pictures aren’t enough.

My son left for college far away at an extremely demanding school, where he is going to work hard and have wonderful experiences. We might get a few more good journeys in together, but I’m on borrowed time. And that’s what I always wanted for him. I love him enough to let him go. But it’s hard. And now I'm on my own again.

So here I am on Whiteblaze, which might arguably be called a social app, and which as far as I can tell is just about the only place where I might find other people who understand all of this. I’m hoping to get some feedback on what the journey means to others in this community, particularly with regard to shared vs. individual experience. How can I find meaning in a solo journey? Is it even possible for a 50 year old, happily married, introverted working professional to form a genuinely trusting relationships with another person or people who would rather be on the side of a frozen mountain in southwest Virginia than just about anywhere else?

I could probably have said all of this better. But I have a huge family birthday party to go to, and much of the gigantic family that I love so much is going to be there. So this will just have to be good enough for now.