![\"dsc01594\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.intothewideopen.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/10\/DSC01594-1024x576.jpg?resize=640%2C360\")
<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<\/p>It\u2019s hard to believe that it\u2019s been almost a month since we stepped off the twelve inch wide path of the Pacific Crest Trail. It seems as if time goes by much faster in civilized life than it does on a wilderness adventure like the one we just had. You are no longer pressed for time and miles. Each day effortlessly blends into the next one with ease and comfort. You go to sleep in a temperature controlled room and wake up in a nice comfortable bed with hot coffee nearby. No need to deflate the air mattress and fold up the tent; simply place your feet on the soft carpet, stand up, and welcome in the new day.\n
I\u2019ve thought about the trail everyday since we\u2019ve stopped. It\u2019s been hard not to. In many ways it seems like it never happened, as if it were some amazing dream, one that you don\u2019t care to wake up from. But my eyelids have retracted, the sleep dust washed clean out of the corner of my eyes, and the pillow where my head had rested for five months lay empty and blank. All that remains is the fleeting thought of that dream, surreal and imagined, hard to comprehend, and something only half tangible, like a person mumbling a song that is strangely familiar yet frustratingly foreign.<\/p>\n
Despite all of this, the dream is still fresh in my mind. I can clearly see certain vistas and camp sites; conversations with other hikers; a particular spring where we collected water; a vivid purple flower; a highway crossing; a subtle smile. And like all good dreams, you wonder why they existed at all and what hidden messages may lay within their folds.<\/p>\n
I read a psychology book recently called \u201cFlow\u201d which talks about optimal experiences, that is, experiences that people undergo that provide immense enjoyment, like a rock climber ascending a peak, or a musician composing something beautiful, or a quilt maker constructing a work of art. The thing all of these people have in common is a \u201cflow\u201d experience, or an experience where they feel present, focused, and able to exercise a particular skill to the best of their abilities. While in this \u201cflow\u201d, time ceases to exist and they become absolutely immersed in the activity. And at the end, the act of doing something that challenges, gives purpose and meaning to their lives, regardless of any monetary or social gains, is sought out again and again simply because it makes these people feel satisfied and alive.<\/p>\n
The most common misconception about thru-hiking is that it must certainly lead to some kind of \u201cah-ha!\u201d moment. One where you finally have that singular mind blowing revelation about life and your purpose in the universe. But this never happened for me on the Appalachian Trail. It never happened on the Continental Divide Trail. And it never happened on the Pacific Crest Trail. I was surely supposed to have found the answer by now, right? I mean, I had walked over 7,000 miles. How much further did I need to walk to find this elusive enlightenment?<\/p>\n
I struggled with this for a while. What did these experiences mean? They must surely have meant something. Throughout the book, I kept making parallels about flow to long distance hiking. And that\u2019s when it hit me. These adventures didn\u2019t need to mean anything. They existed as singular experiences that were immensely enjoyable and satisfying at the time. And that was really it. They needed no justification or outcome- they simply were things that I had done that provided meaning and enjoyment to my life.<\/p>\n
The so called revelation had been in front of me this whole time and \u00a0I had foolishly missed it. Why else would I have continued to seek out these experiences again and again if it were not for the simple reason that I found them enjoyable and worth the effort?<\/p>\n
Flow can taken on many forms. Long distance hiking and possibly to the same extent long distance running are just a few things that put me in that experience. But it is different for everyone and comes in many shapes and forms. It can be as simple as reading a good book that provides new perspective on a certain topic, or as complex as mastering a new language. We must always continue to challenge ourselves by trying to master skills we already have as well as delving into something new and perhaps scary.<\/p>\n
You do not need to hike 7000 miles to find personal fulfillment. At the end of the the day, this is what we are all searching for anyway. Find what makes time cease to exist. You may discover your answer in that space. I don\u2019t know if I\u2019ve arrived and I probably never will. But at least I tried.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s all I can hope to have accomplished. And that\u2019s enough for me.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n<\/body>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
It\u2019s hard to believe that it\u2019s been almost a month since we stepped off the twelve inch wide path of the Pacific Crest Trail. It seems as if time goes by much faster in civilized life than it does on a wilderness adventure like the one we just had. You are no longer pressed for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pacific-crest-trail"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1424"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1548,"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1424\/revisions\/1548"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.intothewideopen.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}