WISDOM

“What would you do if you were not afraid?”

“Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is a daring adventure, or nothing.”

— Helen Keller

Our crude civilization engenders a multitude of wants, and lawgivers are ever at their wits’ end devising. The hall and the theatre and the church have been invented, and compulsory education. Our forefathers forged chains of duty and habit, which bind us notwithstanding our boasted freedom, and we ourselves in desperation add link to link, groaning and making medicinal laws for relief. Yet few think of pure rest or of the healing power of nature.

- John Muir

“One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.”

— John Muir, Our National Parks

Sometimes I arrive just when God’s ready to have someone click the shutter.

- Ansel Adams

“Keep close to Nature’s heart...and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods. Wash your spirit clean.”

— John Muir

Leap and the net will appear.

- Jimmy Buffett

If you judge safety to be the paramount consideration in life you should never, under any circumstances, go on long hikes alone. Don’t take short hikes alone, either - or, for that matter, go anywhere alone. And avoid at all costs such foolhardy activities as driving, falling in love, or inhaling air that is almost certainly riddled with deadly germs…and never of course, explore the guts of an idea that seems as if it might threaten one of your more cherished beliefs. In your wisdom you will probably live to be a ripe old age. But you may discover, just before you die, that you have been dead for a long, long time.

- Colin Fletcher

“No matter how sophisticated you may be, a large granite mountain cannot be denied - it speaks in silence to the very core of your being.”

— Ansel Adams

Before the deed comes the thought. Before the achievement comes the dream. Every mountain we climb, we first climb in our mind.

- Royal Robbins

“Failure is not as frightening as regret.”

— from the movie, The Dish

Wilderness is a necessity…they will see what I meant in time. There must be places for human beings to satisfy their souls. Food and drink is not all. There is the spiritual. In some it is only a germ, of course, but the germ will grow.

- John Muir

“National Parks are the best idea we ever had. Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst. ”

— Wallace Stegner

It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the end.

- Ernest Hemmingway

“Going to the mountains is going home.”

— John Muir

6/27/15 - Rosie and Me

July 02, 2015 in Journal - Pre Hike

When contemplating something like a thru hike of the JMT it is easy to think only of the beautiful sights you will see, one more amazing than the last. Or to contemplate the people you may meet, secure in the knowledge you will share a common bond regardless of age or background. All that romantic, idealistic stuff that makes you want to do it in the first place.

But the cold hard reality is this. The JMT is long. The JMT is tough.