Double Up

Hiking and camping can be solitary journeys.

The lone wolf, heading out across places unknown, the wind in your face, nothing but you and your wits between you and the cold hard elements of nature. And that is one way. I've done it that way, but it's usually fueled by emotion need at the time and not my preferred way. To me, hiking is a community endeavor.

There is the camaraderie and closeness that you share when you suffer the "slings and arrows" of the trail you have selected. Instead of the story being that you forgot the map and nearly got lost, the story becomes, "One of us forgot the map, we got lost, and laughed about it later." You share the burden as well. If one person has a filter, not everyone has to bring a filter. If one person has a stove, not every person has to have a stove. If one person has the bear bag and line... and so on. It makes the experience more accessible for a wider panel of people. You don't have to put down $800 to get started, you can borrow and rely on others to make the journey work.

Some people don't like relying on other folks, and as much as I want to get that, I feel oddly bad for those people. It sounds like they have trust issues. Part of being in the natural world is the recognition that none of us are alone, and that, like nature, we rely on a complex web of support to keep us going.

Not to mention the benefit of shared memory. Sure, everyone takes pictures and posts them or whatever, but there is nothing like sharing the memory of that picture with someone 10 or even 20 years afterwards. It deepens the moments and the emotions of that trip to know that someone was there to share it, and that now, you could share the memory of that same experience.

We are built to share experience.

There is a pretty incredible study that was done through Harvard that watched 700 people for 75 years which was built to talk about what happiness was really all about. The clearest message from 75 years? "Good relationships keep us happier and healthier." That's it. So yeah, you can go hiking, you can have all the gear, but sharing the experience not only makes your brain function better, but it makes the hike a happier place.

Find your hiking buddy. Try out a Meetup Group of hikers. Call up the nearby college acquaintance and see if they will join you on a crazy hike. As much as you might want to take on the world by yourself, and hike up the challenging places alone in perfect heroic singleness. Find your partner. "It's 'dangerous' to go alone." So take someone along on your journey.