Monday, September 05, 2022

Hiking, Signs, And Locations

 Thanks for coming along with my "blow by blow" of the Mt. Whitney hike.  I had originally not intended to write the entire trip out in a single stream, but like many such things, once one gets started it is hard to not continue the narrative without getting too off track.


As promised (and actually, probably more challenging for me) I wanted to start to write into some of the experiences and observations from the hike, not just on a "this is what we did and saw" but "this is what I observed and learned".  I am reluctant to say that somehow those are any better than just the scenic beauty and accomplishments - which were indeed astounding! - but they have as much relevance as the scenic beauty, although of course there are really no pictures to document it.


Hiking on a journey like this struck me as to the merging into different locations as we walked along.  We moved from national park to national forest to specific pass and back, all while essentially staying on the same trail.  If one was looking from the outside, one could not tell where one border ended and another began, only that we were on the trail heading between two points with a goal in mind.


But really, is that not life?  We - or perhaps only I - look for the clear dividing lines that push us from one stage or time to another.  But more often than not, it is not the case:  we wander back and forth between stages and groupings, perhaps thinking that we are in one area when in point of fact we never left the previous stage.


Signs can be important on the trail - after all, they indicated trails and boundaries and precisely where to go.  In an age of electronic gadgetry, this seems somewhat less important than what it once might have been, right up to the point that the battery dies or the service no longer connects and one is left following the trail that is in front of one in hopes that it really does lead where everything else said it was going.

In reality, of course, these observations of things - not just the environment, but interactions, thoughts, learnings - are signs of their own.  Perhaps not as clearly delineated as the post in the ground with a plaque on it instructing us where we are going and where we are coming from, but signs none the less.  To stride by these mental signs, to only remember and glory in the physical beauty around one, seems to me as great a mistake as to ignore the scenery and concentrate 100% on what one might have learned.


In the end of course, it becomes a great dance:  in life, as is hiking, we pass in and out of  geographic indications defined no more clearly in our mind than in a forest.  Sometimes it may feel we have made no progress at all; other times we feel we have far outstripped where should be, only to find out the progress made was far less than anticipated.  But irrespective of the signs themselves, we continue the journey, knowing that as long as we stay on the path and follow the signs, we will end up where we intended at the start of the hike.

We need not always understand precisely where we are, only that we are the correct path.


10 comments:

  1. I so enjoyed your account of your hike, and especially liked the observations and lessons learned.

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    1. Thank you Mary! I am fortunate in that, through writing, I get to relive the experience again.

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  2. " Sometimes it may feel we have made no progress at all; other times we feel we have far outstripped where should be, only to find out the progress made was far less than anticipated." I can attest to this. I would never have imagined in my worst dreams the last 30 months of my life. Progress has indeed been far less than anticipated...

    I'm still hopeful it's not destructive testing...

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    1. STxAR, I for one often tend to over emphasize the amount of progress I have made. I think that modern society is somewhat prone to that anymore; in virtually every media outlet expertise "just happens", and is not carved out of years of invisible effort and trial.

      The good news is, the progress continues, even if slow and invisible.

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  3. What type of bone is that on the second sign, TB?
    And thanks again for sharing your trip with us.
    You all be safe and God bless.

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    1. Linda, I actually know the answer to the question (as we had a doctor in our party, not that I knew it). It is the left femur of a bear.

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    2. That is pretty neat. Thought maybe it was a dinosaur, haha. God bless.

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    3. Linda, the other option was human, which would have been a bit ominous...

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  4. I've only been lost a couple times in my life and both times were when I thought I knew where I was going and stopped comparing where I was actually at to where I should be at. Both times after stopping and comparing where I was at to the details of my map, I was eventually able to figure out where I went wrong and get back on track.

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    1. Ed, the only time I got "lost" on this trip, it was less than .25 of a mile off the track. Some of party went farther down the same trail; at some point, we would have had to turn back anyway.

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