I Like To Move It Move It

There is something to be said for that desire to go out into the woods and just walk. Bill Bryson articulates the simple strength of this desire in A Walk In The Woods, which I am currently reading and loving. He has both inspiring and hilarious moments as he hikes the Appalachian Trail with his pudgy, whining trailmate and a host of other characters that find themselves alone in the woods together. But take away the waterproof equipment, the fancy foldable cookware, and there you have a person plodding along a beaten path, either on a linear trajectory or my favorite, a loop trail.

It doesn't seem to make sense. Why especially pick a loop trail that will take you in a circle and drop you right where you started a few miles before? Usually we travel to go somewhere, not simply to travel. But hiking is its own purpose. As soon as I get into the thick of the woods and feel the cool air with a hint of forest floor moisture, I'm sold. I don't even spend that much time looking around so much as getting fleeting glimpses of the light through the leaves, fallen branches, some rustling undergrowth. The majority of the time I have my eyes on the path in front of me, navigating around tree roots and jutting rocks. I believe that we house vestigial traces of our nomadic ancestors inside these modern bodies, and that feeling of traveling a winding path, staring up at the stars, and making a fire satisfy something deeply.