Sharing the Hiking Trail

Hiking is always my first choice. Hiking is clean and simple, all that’s needed are two feet and a willingness to walk.

tl;dr – Find the thing you enjoy, then do it often. Share it when you can and feel the enjoyment grow.

Don’t get me wrong, I love the wind ruffling my hair on a bike, but that’s changed since riding without a bike helmet is out of favor. Horses can be fun, but they require a bunch of care and additional transportation. And boats are great, but there’s all the required equipment, starting with the boat.

Hiking just has a simplicity that has appealed to me since I could count my age in single digits. My dad grew up in the city. His idea of a cow was what you saw at the zoo and a hike was how you moved from one side of the park to another. His feet touched dirt rounding second base during a sandlot game, or maybe one week a summer when his family gathered near the Russian River.

I remember when we moved to the Pacific Northwest and Dad took me hiking on a hill above our house. I was six or seven years old. We climbed for hours and finally reached the summit. We could see Mt Hood and Mt Jefferson to the east and southeast. We snacked on peanuts, thick slices of hard salami with sharp cheddar cheese. In my mind, we were in the wilderness, but in reality we had just followed the neighborhood road four blocks up the hill and slipped into an unfenced pasture at the top. It made no difference to me, I was hooked.

Cub Scouts came and went without, the promise of outdoor adventure went unfulfilled while we learned to cook hot dogs wrapped in dough on a stick and raced little cars down a track. Boy Scouts immediately showed more promise, although I had to earn the hiking privilege by learning my knots and other Scouting basics.

Years passed, and so did hikes and backpacking trips. There was the time the final mile of the hike wound up an old logging road away from the river and we ran out of water halfway up. That time the tarp shelter side caved in under the overnight snow, spilling wet snow on our Kapok sleeping bags and forcing us to spend the night sitting up in our dry clothes to stay warm. Or the time I broke my arm in the wilderness and missed climbing South Sister, a real heartbreak for an excited 12 year-old. Or when I tore my MCL falling into a tree well below Jefferson Park.

And that time….well, lots of times and most of them without injuries. Mornings watching sunlight fall on the trees on the opposite side of a high mountain lake. Abruptly freezing in place after turning a bend in the trail so as to avoid spooking a mule deer and then watching as the entire herd quietly crossed the trail to the stream below. Skinny-dipping in a mountain lake with four inches of last season’s snow covering the lakeshore. Setting down the pack and wolfing lunch on top of a mountain covered in wildflowers, then taking a picture that does no justice to the sweet smells and soft sounds surrounding me.

Hiking taught me self-reliance, but it also taught me teamwork and to care for others. Hiking gave me confidence, both physically and mentally, to move forward, to persevere, and find a solution to almost any problem. Hiking taught me the value of setting goals and the thrill of achieving them. Through hiking I learned to appreciate the small things, the details.

Hiking also released the stresses of work and cleared my mind for bigger projects. Planning always seems easier after a hike. The steps to any project, big or small, appear more clearly. Objectives become more defined and objections less difficult to surmount.

A few years ago I was offered the opportunity to give back, to return the favor to the trails and streams and meadows that formed my youth and calm the stresses of work. A group known as Wilderness Stewards formed on the Mt Hood National Forest to help manage use in the six most heavily visited wilderness areas. The objective was to avoid Congressionally-required regulation on the number of visitors allowed on the trails, the strategy was on-trail counseling on wilderness travel and enjoyment.

This sounded like just the thing for me, so I joined up and now spend six to eight weekends during the season checking trails, providing trailside directions on headings and campsites, and some instruction on protecting the trail for later visits. There are also trail areas to rehabilitate, locations to remove fire rings and restore meadows, spots to rebuild trails and corrals, and always opportunities to help out a hiker needing water or finding a lost friend. Once in a while I give demonstrations on map reading, tracking, shelter placement and construction, fire building, and other elements that fall under the Leave No Trace guidelines.

So what pleases you, Boomer Male, what helps define your life? Whatever gives you pleasure, find new ways to enjoy it; share it with others and feel that pleasure grow. Share your pleasure with us here in the comments. We might even ask you to share a longer story with us.

Live well.