Sitting the Trails
This is a piece I wrote by request for the AAMN blog site series called Evergreen Reflections.
I go RV camping at least once per month all year long. Some months, I get lucky and go two or three times. It is something that I yearn for. In fact, thinking about going on a trip with my camper can give me that same physical feeling I used to get when I quit smoking and really wanted a cigarette. It drives me to my computer, where I spend hours reading about other people’s camping experiences and researching places for me to go next. One thing you can count on, I will always try to choose a place that has hiking trails. To me, camping is really all about hiking. I love the smells of the woods, the beautiful vistas and overlooks, the plants growing along the trail, and different living creatures that I happen upon. It all nourishes my soul in ways I just can’t get from city life.
Based on my observations during the 293 camping trips I have taken since getting my first RV, I am not the usual RV enthusiast. You won’t find me sitting in a chair in front of my camper watching people coming and going. I never bother with a camp fire of my own, although I will join others at theirs. Most of the time, I am not even anywhere near my camper. I am on the trails.
Some of you are probably thinking that I can’t spend that much time hiking. Well, you are partially right. Over time, my interest in hiking has evolved into a very different adventure. Now, I am focused on exploring the life around me as I hike the trails so much that I am not always in motion. I have two tools that assist me in my exploring efforts. Each of them slows me down in slightly different ways.
The first thing I always carry with me on a hike is my camera. I have a passion for finding and photographing living things. They can be plants, birds, reptiles, or insects. It really doesn’t matter anymore. I am simply enamored with all the living things in nature. I also have a string innee desire to become a skilled nature photographer. That takes a lot of practice, so I take hundreds of photos on every one of my hikes. Most people don’t like hiking with me for that reason. I stop about every ten steps to investigate something that has caught my eye. It is often the type of thing that anyone else either wouldn’t notice or wouldn’t really want to stop and study. It can take me as much as two hours to hike one mile.
My newest piece of hiking equipment is one of those goofy twisting stools you have all seen on Facebook. My wife got me one as a gag gift. Now, I carry it in a knapsack when I am hiking. I like to take it out, set it up, and sit for an hour or so along the trail just to see what might also be traveling my way. Sometimes, all I get for my efforts is a nice quiet place to think for a while. Other times, the woods around me seem to come to life with incredible excitement, as if all God’s creatures have forgotten that I was passing through their territory. They seem to linger- posed and ready for me to capture them at their best. On those occasions, I become lost in my own little time zone.
It really doesn’t matter how long a hike takes me. I am never in a hurry anymore . That is just one of the blessings that come with retirement. Maybe someday, we will meet along a trail and have a sit together enjoying nature’s bounty.