Last weekend it was back to the Whites for an overnight in the southern Presidentials. Other than Mount Washington I had not done any hiking in the presidential range. I was holding off for a presidential traverse but the logistics of that have yet to pan out. A traverse is a 23 mile hike across the entire range. Some people complete it in one long day and others stay overnight, usually at Lake of the Clouds. I’m not in good enough shape to complete it all in one day and availability at the hut can be hard to come by in the summer. Since you can’t camp above tree line the only other options is to hike down to spend the night, which I’m not really psyched on. The only summit we didn’t tag was Monroe as it was getting dark and there was an impending storm that we could see in the distance. We stayed the night at Nauman tent site and hiked Jackson and Webster the next morning.
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about why I go hiking. To be honest there isn’t one specific reason but I believe it to be a combination of things, some of which I’m still trying to figure out. Why go hiking at all? Is it to get outside and disconnect? For the exercise? Or is it to slow the pace of life down a bit and appreciate the nuance of the outdoors? On the surface those are the reasons most people venture outdoors, but for me there is something else that I can’t define, something that is underlying all of that. I don’t know what it is yet but I hope I can flush it out by continually writing on this blog, reading and exploring as much as I can.
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