Going It Alone: Ramblings and Reflections From the Trail by Tim Hauserman

Author:Tim Hauserman [Hauserman, Tim]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: nature, General, Essays, Travel, Essays & Travelogues, Sports & Recreation, Hiking
ISBN: 9781647790660
Google: nEBzEAAAQBAJ
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
Published: 2022-08-02T20:40:07+00:00

I listened to the wind roaring through the trees. A complicated symphony, rising and falling in volume with each gust. The trees are the musicians, with needles, branches, and the wind their instruments. Slowly the music lifts up, reaches a crescendo, then softly retreats before rising up again, getting stronger and stronger until, just when it seems impossibly loud, it dies back once more.

In eight days I’d covered almost ninety miles, slowly marching around one of the most beautiful lakes in the world. Every day had brought a new vision of my future, a new perspective on my past. I had listened to the stories of fascinating people, seen heart-stopping beauty, and in the middle of the night in Tahoe Meadows, restrained myself from flying out of my tent and tackling a runner who had the nerve to loudly help another semicomatose racer get through the darkness. I’ve had the bejeebies scared out of me by a bear, and I’ve faced periods of wrenching loneliness. Was I out there getting my shit together and making great strides toward developing myself as a person for the next phase of my life, or was I just going for a long, painful walk? Hell if I knew, but I wasn’t sure whether I would know the answer to that question until my journey was complete—and probably not even then. Perhaps, the lesson I was trying to learn is that it’s just about the walking.

Sometimes, if I am lucky and my brain shuts up, it truly becomes just about the walking. My only focus is the rhythmic sound of crunching footsteps playing a tune as they dance on down the trail. Walking then becomes moving meditation. It is no longer about distance and time, or thought; it’s just moving steadily down the trail, observing the world peacefully as it passes by. The problem of course is that this meditative state is like a good golf shot: it feels amazing, but it doesn’t often happen and you are not exactly sure how to make it happen again.

Moving meditation disclaimer: While flowing down a trail in a blissful state of moving meditation, it is quite easy to inadvertently pass trail intersections or your planned campsite. The good news is that meditation while hiking is considerably safer than meditating while driving, when you suddenly realize you have been driving the last ten minutes and have no idea where you are.

I head into the woods by myself to directly connect to nature, but this was one of those times I missed being the leader of a hiking trip. The highlight of guiding others is passing along the tales of the places through which you are traveling. Telling what you know to those who don’t know is humans’ most ancient method of transferring knowledge from generation to generation. For me, that means pointing out the florescent orange tiger lilies popping up near a streambed; or noting the sly coyote smoothly drifting across the meadow; or suggesting a route to conquer a craggy peak.

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