The pure simplicity of walking

Simple and functional shelter

I am very excited about the upcoming backpacking trip to Virgin Falls with my Boy Scout troop this weekend. No backwoods travel captures my imagination like the adventure of backpacking. I guess it reveals me to be a geek, but I love paying attention to all the little details of each item in my kit. I love the freedom that comes with going light in the wild. The pure simplicity of lightweight backpacking speaks to me.

Total weight = 20 lbs.

Trail dreaming

Trail dreaming

As much as I enjoy my daily walks in our little hollow, I also hear the call of distant hills and I find that I'm itching to go backpacking again. The urge has been slowly creeping up on me, but now it has taken over. No  doubt I'll be spending an inordinate amount of time thinking and planning, weighing my gear, pouring over maps, and dreaming of trails ahead.

Most of our Scout outings over the last year were canoe trips. This was so that we would be prepared for our trek in canoe country. Paddling a canoe is fun, but it's been more than a year since I've walked a long trail. For me, walking is the essence of simplicity in nature. A year off is definitely too long of a hiking hiatus for me. I need to make time for some solo wilderness wandering this fall.

Me at Martha's Pretty Point on the trail to Virgin Falls in Tennessee

Lightweight camp at Big Laurel Falls

Complete kit, 20 lbs.

A sacred trust

"The good citizen knows that the land is a sacred trust. He feels that, when he passes it on to future generations, it must be as good as when he found it, or better."
-- Sigurd Olson, "Conservation and Citizenship," Gopher Historian, April 1953.
(Borrowed from the Sigurd F. Olson Web Site quote for the month of Feb. 2012)

Virgin Falls, Tenn., Nov. 2010

Some places are of such intrinsic wonder that we, as stewards of the earth, should preserve them forever. Virgin Falls is one such magical place. The falls are formed by an underground stream that emerges from a cave, flows downhill about 50 feet, then drops over a 110-foot high cliff before disappearing into another cave at the bottom, giving the impression of a freestanding waterfall with no river. The wonders of this amazing place are free to anyone willing to walk an 8 mile round-trip trail. To leave this area anything but pristine would be unconscionable.