Starting on the right foot

I've been told by enough of my friends that I ought to keep a blog of all my hiking adventures. One can only hear the same suggestion so many times before finally caving (it doesn't hurt if you're already amenable to the idea).

So I guess I should write about the hikes I do on weekends, or sometimes six days in a row if I should have some time off. I'll be giving some basic information about the place itself, but rather than simply an informational/instructional of each hike I'll also give some impressions and talk about what hiking means to me personally.

So let's get things started right by giving you an idea as to why I hike in the first place.

The least objectionable selfie I took on this hike (debatable)

I hike because it lets you do cool stuff like look at Marquette and Presque Isle and Huron Mountain and Lake Superior and all the rest from hundreds of feet above. It takes you to places you'll never reach, and gives you experiences you'll never live, any other way. All the social media, hours-long nature documentaries, nature porn coffee table books... nothing comes close to the real thing.

It's also a way to self-reflect. Most of my hikes are solo, and it gives me a chance to explore my thoughts in (mostly) silence while I take in my surroundings. I do occasionally wish I could share the moments with a friend, significant other, etc. (I was on a hike with a friend in the photo above, the rare exception) but the woods is the one place where I don't really feel lonely by myself. Gosh... that sounds an awful lot like some naturalist philosopher's nugget of wisdom... halp?

There are plenty of other reasons — more on those in future posts. For now, I'll leave you with this parting shot from my first solo backpacking trip on Grand Island National Rec Area:

You'll probably notice I can never keep the horizon level in my pictures...