Love Can Be Blind

Sometimes we have this idea that hiking the Appalachian Trail (AT) is going to be this idyllic, romantic oneness with nature. A great love affair!

Sure, it’s not all going to be sunshine and roses, “no rain or pain, no Maine” right? But nothing I can’t handle. It’s just me and the “great” outdoors!

But…

Just as we don’t know someone as deeply as the one we get married to and begin to live with day after day, neither do we know nature as intimately as when we move into her home and begin living with her day after day.

This kind of intimate and daily proximity can end up being quite an eye opener! Ol’ mother nature can have some sudden, nasty and even lengthy mood swings! Sometimes you would swear that mother nature has a serious bipolar disorder. She embraces you in her warm sunshine and gentle breezes and the next moment she’s shoving you around with gale force winds and trying to drown you in days of apocalyptic downpour! You also don’t want to get on her bad side as she has a wicked cold shoulder, especially in the Smokies and White Mountains!

More often than you would care to experience, you are left wondering what you did or said that made her so mad, causing her to punish you so with the foulest conditions.

Then about the time you’re thinking you can’t take anymore and are about to serve her your divorce papers to leave her green canopy behind you, she turns all sweet on you.

It can be a real love, hate relationship! =)

Mother nature and I had our tiffs, but I think the toughest to push through was in Virginia. She had decided she hadn’t had a good drought for a while and now was as good a time as any. Even many of the “reliable” water sources were mud holes or barely trickling by the time I got there.

You can force your way through most of what mother nature throws at you, but you can’t go without water. It’s just physically and mentally impossible.

When I came to a dry “reliable” water source, I would shed my pack and follow the ravine down the mountain flipping rocks and listening for trickles of water. Sometimes I would find some, most times not.

When I did find water, much of the time I would fill up using the top of my Nalgene bottle.  This process usually involved having to put up with sediment in my water too.  There’s nothing quite like a little grit in your gizzard when you are so parched. It also meant drinking murky water at times that you would have rated somewhere between stagnant and putrid with normal water resources available. (Although having murky water did help with rationing my water until I could find some better.)  =)

Water, especially the lack thereof, can end up driving your entire hike. It can determine how far you hike each day, what you eat, how often you eat, your strength levels, your general and mental h ealth, whether you go to town or not. Instead of thinking about food all day, you think about cool springs and st reams.

The time I felt most loved by mother nature was camping at one of Maine’s many beautiful wilderness ponds (more like lakes), Antlers Campsite on a warm evening. =)  It had stormed in the afternoon but began to clear up by early evening. Everything smelled fresh and clean. A spectacular sunset was reflecting off the pond of glass as the sun was slowly being embraced by the tree lined, misty horizon. When the stars came out there were so many it was as if they were making a gallant effort to obliterate the darkness with their glittering beauty. Then for the encore, all through the evening I was serenaded by the tireless, iconic wilderness voices of the Loons. It was an incredible evening. It’s hard imagining anything being more beautiful and blissful… (Well, maybe veils of fireflies waltzing over the pond in wispy, sparkling waves could have.) =)

Mother nature was “far” more gracious to me than rough on me. But the point is, moving in with nature for months on end is in part, “serious business.” You are going to experience her at her best, her worst and everything in between. You must prepare and plan for that as much, or even “more,” than any of your other considerations and preparations.

Mother nature is just like anything else in this world. It comes with its good and bad. It’s not all just a bed of roses.

Job, while going through some epic days of personal drought says to his distressed and downcast wife, “Shall we indeed accept good from God, and shall we not accept adversity?” (Job 2:10).  There is no escaping the adversity that life will present us or mother nature will throw at us. This is one of the reasons why the Twenty-third Psalm is so beloved. In stanza 4, David cries out, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for” (the reason being) “You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me.”

The only control we have over any of our days on or off the trail is how we choose to process them. Going through them all on our own and without any real plan is generally not very productive. On the other hand, if we process them with God, through God and for God, as well as with a hiking buddy or tramily, now we have friends to share the day with and a plan to process however and whatever days we have.

God tells us in James 4:13–15, Come now, you who say, “Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, spend a year there, buy and sell, and make a profit (or hike the entire AT)”; whereas you do not know what will happen tomorrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes away (notonly are the days unpredictable, but life is short as well). Instead you ought to say, “If the Lord wills, we shall live and do this or that.”

A realistic approach to hiking the AT then, is to say, “I have a plan I would like to fulfill, and if the Lord allows me to live long enough, doesn’t put up any roadblocks and enables me along the way, I stand a good chance of accomplishing it as long as I do my part.” With this attitude I don’t approach the AT like a bull in a China shop, but more like a precision footed mountain goat progressively overcoming one challenging mountain face after another.

God tells us in Romans 12:3 that those who have the best chances at succuss, like the mountain goat, are those who have a realistic understanding of themselves, their abilities and their environment. “For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly (proudly, loftily, idealistically) than he ought to think, but to think soberly (sensibly, modestly, perceptively), as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”

The people who have the most realistic view of themselves and life are the ones who typically are caught off guard the least and thus have a great chance of experiencing joy and fulfillment despite life’s or mother nature’s challenges.

We don’t have to have all the details concerning our good and adverse days, and frankly I don’t want to know them before they come. We just need to understand the realities and certainties of them, expecting them in all their various forms, intensities and durations. Not in a fatalistic sort of way, but in a “this is normal life” way, being prepared to process them right away in order to persevere and press on with our goals.

With this kind of thinking and attitude, we are better equipped to tackle life and something as challenging and rewarding as hiking the AT!

Our love for mother nature doesn’t have to be blind love. =)

Often times when we are contemplating a big venture or purchase, we consider the pros and cons. When considering such an adventure as the AT we spend weeks and months going over gear, maps and food options.

If you have not already, consider evaluating the problem-solving skills you will need. Think about how you will handle the mental challenges, (which I think is at least half the challenge of successively hiking the AT. Maybe even two thirds of it.). If you want to end up hiking with someone, consider the person who would be the best fit and how you can be a blessing to them too. Plan an arsenal of things and ways to encourage yourself when you need it. (For example, treats, music, audio books, podcasts, quotes, pictures, people you can call or text, nonessential hostel/motel stays, short visits to friends and family, doing unexpected/special things for yourself and others, etc..) Not if, but when you are seriously considering ending your adventure, think about how much time you will give yourself to weigh the pros and cons before you do, who you will talk to about it and in what kind of weather you will finalize it.