Hiking Log – A Day in 2016

Hiking Log – A Day in 2016

This is part eight of excerpts from the trail log which was located on a New York portion of the Appalachian trail. For the post which explains this series, click here.

These posts typically focus on one particular hiker and his or her thoughts in a moment. I’m taking a slightly different tact this time. Following are all the hiker thoughts for one day in time:

October 19, 2016

• First Hiker of the Day: Brilliant red on leaves
• Second: Last warm beautiful day of Fall. Leaves are coloring/leaves are falling. This breeze couldn’t be better. Always remember to make time!!!
• Third: Vasoconstrictors constrict and pump blood through ventricles excitatory. Breath. Stop. Exhale to thoughts of a better me.
• Fourth: Fear nothing and experience everything! Hike more – it’s great therapy.
• Final: Beautiful! Days & Nights. To PA and AT. 

I picked a single day of October 2016 for this post. During that day, five different hikers stopped by to jot down a few quick notes in the trail log. When I first read these entries, I assumed it was a weekend, since there were so many people out and about. However, the 19th of October was a Wednesday, so these were probably long-term hikers who were spending days, weeks, or months on the trail. The day was sunny and evidently beautiful. Here’s what struck me about all those posts above, and quite frankly, about most hikers.

The first hiker was living in the moment. Many of us rush through our days, not noticing much around us. Our brains are usually focused on the “what’s next” or we’re replaying conversations we’ve had or things we need to finish. This hiker didn’t write about all the things he had on his to-do list. He wrote, “brilliant red on leaves.” He was paying attention to his moment. I think we should all take a break at the end of this paragraph. Breathe, look around and find something interesting to focus on. What’s going on around you? What’s in your moment? Right now? We could all be much happier by focusing on all our moments.

Now that you’re back from your experiment to focus on the moment, the second hiker was doing the same thing, enjoying the moment. But this hiker added some instructions. “Always remember to make time.” We can all read into this anything we want in terms of what we are to make time for. But I believe this hiker is telling us to make time to enjoy. To enjoy the outdoors, the weather, the moment, our lives. To get up off our butts and go explore. Exploration can add excitement and wonder to our days.

And then hiker number three added. “Breathe, stop, exhale to thoughts of a better me“. Holy moly. So not only should we focus on the moment, and put some adventure in our lives, but think of bettering ourselves. By the way, I was wondering if this particular hiker was a doctor or maybe medical student. Most people don’t talk about vasoconstrictors and ventricles. Medical expert or not, this hiker was suggesting that we again, stop, breath, and use that moment to find our way to a better us.

The fourth hiker continues the same line of reasoning, but his includes a wonderful addition. “Fear nothing.” Fear is why many of us don’t reach our potential, and don’t enjoy our lives as fully as we could. Fear is everywhere. We might be frightful of trying something new. Some of us are afraid of speaking in public, taking risks, failing, or of actually succeeding. I think this hiker was saying, “Get over it!” Don’t be afraid. Be fearless. And what’s the best way to get rid of any specific fear? To do those things that frighten us, anyway. Once we’ve attacked them, we win.

And the fifth hiker of the day just wrapped it all up. “Beautiful days and nights.”  All of these hikers were pointing towards ways to improve the quality of our lives. I want to thank all of them for their thoughts. I, for one, truly believe if we focus on the moment, remember to make time, think of ways to a better us, and fear nothing, we can triumph.

For more thehousekat.com Hiking-related posts, click here.