THru-Hiking gives you a new perspective of life. It takes you out of your routine and forces you to look at things a bit differently. Many hikers describe that the path changes their views on consumerism, the balance between working life and life, spirituality and other great things.
For me, through the Hoking changed my perspective in several fundamental ways, but it also made me more in tune with a myriad of small trivial details of the «normal» life that I had never noticed before. Here are some examples.
1. Perfume smells
Nothing like passing 95% of its time breathing an intoxicating mixture of pristine mountain air and smell smelling to make the smell of scented beauty products seem a frontal assault to its nostrils.
Excursionistas often comment in silent tones in the many overwhelming aromas emitted by the day hikers that pass (sunscreens, soaps, dryer sheets, etc., which seem to delay in the air for several minutes after the source has passed.
Backpacks tend to avoid very scented products as much as possible because they could attract bears. In any case, if it goes from 3 to 7 days at the same time between showers, it does not make much sense to use fragrances to try to improve your personal aroma.
As a result, every time we find «smells of the city», the result is a sensory overload. Even walking through the cleaning supply hall in the grocery store during refueling becomes an olfactory nightmare.
Do not be misunderstood. No one is arguing that smells through children are superior to, for example, the body spray of the ax. It’s just that scented products hit differently after a decent amount of time has passed away from such things.
2. Water from the city
Hey, I am in favor of water treatment. Water treatment improves health results and is why I can drink water directly from my tap without having to filter it first.
But I have to admit that, after drinking nothing more than spring water directly from the source, even only a few days, the taste of chlorine in tap water in the days of the city can be overwhelming, almost like a sip directly from a pool.
Some municipalities chlorinate their water more than others than others, and other factors such as water hardness can also affect flavor. But when I spend most of my front time, the taste is rarely notice.
It is not so when I am a backpack. Sometimes I have a hard time staying in the days of the city simply because the taste is very unpleasant compared to the water that filters from the crossings of the current while walking.
Note on the margin: My privilege AT is probably shown here. Any desert through Hiker who reads this after filtering water from a diffuse green cow tank will probably put your eyes on the day.
3. The existence of power sales points
When it is through Hiking, one must take advantage of all possible opportunities to collect. My eyes are already scanning the lower third of the wall while on the way to the grocery store, looking for a half -brought vacant exit behind the vending machines.
Eating in a restaurant? If there are enough available tables that it is not unpleasant to ask, I always request a table with an exit near.
I carry a battery bank, but I have the opportunity to recharge my electronics from the grid, I will always take it. Better to err on the side of caution. Even to this day, I cannot enter a lion of food without mentally cataloging all the plugs near the entrance of the store.
4. Each vaguely white, vaguely rectangular (in hikers they know what I mean)))
This type of scene will make you an expert to detect white rectangles everywhere. Photo: Leg
Do you have any idea how many white rectangles meet the average person in one day? No? Go walking through the AT and then walks through your hometown. Suddenly, you will find you noticing random white signs, samples of paint and suspicious lichen patches throughout the place.
The AT will develop its journey, mental strength and physical state. But there is no other ability for the path to train enough such as the ability to detect white jackets.
Spend a few weeks sailing through a snowy forest on a path marked almost exclusively with white paint and then tries not to notice white rectangles everywhere during the next eight months.
After 2,200 miles in the AT, your brain will be in the recognition of patterns, and everything vaguely white and vaguely orthogonal will see you as a fire.
5. «It seems that it would be a good camp»
For someone who allegedly loves to walk so much, I spend a lot of miles anticipating how well it will feel when I can finally make camp, and my mind takes care of all day cataloging all the flat and free places of vegetation in which I could put a tent (even if I know that I will still be walking for hours).
As with the thing of Blaze White above, once a certain amount of time has passed scanning the surrounding terrain with desperate acuity in search of a flat land patch in which to camp, the superpowers of recognition of patterns of their brain take over and suddenly each flat surface stands out as if it had a focus of attention.
I often notice incredible «Campings» while I go on one day walks, in city parks and occasionally in the rear courtyards of their friends.
As we are on the subject, consider this your friendly reminder to always sleep on lasting surfaces and in established camps, all of you.
6. String Sofas
Comfortable seats are not a characteristic by which most hiking routes are known. As a result, backpackers are in tune with the type of smooth rocks and «quite dry» trunks that can serve as improvised seat arrangements along with the path.
My friend Sally Forth used to call them paths of trails, and occasionally, you will find a great rock that is so comfortable, so perfectly ergonomic that it should be illegal. Once you have experienced your first really cousin of rock care, there is no return, and you will look for that next special path of trails.
Through the changes, his perspective in many ways changes, and I don’t want to neglect the greatest things. Of course, spending a prolonged period in the mountains on a walk will probably also make you more tuned with deeper things like your own thoughts and feelings, the rhythms of the natural world and the special synchrony that we often described as «magic of trails.»
What are some details that you never noticed before making use, but now you can’t see?
Outstanding image: graphic design by Zack Goldmann.
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