Backpacking Musings

I just about doubled my backpacking experience in the past three weeks. Having gone on two trips in the span of a few weeks, compared to having gone two or three times in my whole life prior.

I’m not much for the long hikes and sleeping outside on the ground, but my sister loves it and is very passionate about it, so I go along.
    The first trip - a few weeks ago, was with just my family, and the trip this past weekend was with the girls who are part of a girl's nature group my sister hosts at our church.
    As I was hiking out of the woods on Sunday I began thinking about what I would blog about this week.  
We were hiking single file and all occupying our own thoughts, I began considering the experience, the lessons I had learned and etc. 
    Although I would much rather have spent the night in a hotel, I have to admit there are some merits to backpacking. It brings you back to a simpler place. 
    Carrying everything you need to live on your back through the woods. Without the bustle and noise of everyday life. Free from screens and media. You are forced to enjoy the silence and your companions.
    These are some things that are nice about going on a backpacking trip. Not to forget that food tastes better when you’ve been hiking all day with a huge pack on your back. Freeze-dried chicken and rice, rehydrated with filtered stream water may be the most delicious thing any of us had ever eaten.
    All that being said, backpacking is hard, your body aches and you question all the choices that led you to sleep on the ground in 40-degree weather. 
    It has been my belief for a while now, that when we are in nature we are closer to God. When I was hiking I was thinking about this. God is never far from us, whether we are outside or in. But when we take time to intentionally be near his creation, he seems more real and nearer. At the same time, I think that sometimes being in nature helps us to remember our human frailty and the brevity of life. Downed trees that stood for a hundred years are now rotting on the ground, and who knows how many spiders and salamanders we stepped on.
    As Ralph Waldo Emerson (possibly the most famous transcendentalist) says, “In the woods, we return to faith and reason.” How true is this, in the woods, in the silence, the chaos that our minds have been dominated by becomes more clear. In the woods, life is simpler.
    The trail we hiked wasn’t the most well-groomed. The trail blazes were clear, but the path wasn’t. Trees that had likely been down for years obstructed the path. We had to cross at least four streams and rivers. 
    In life, sometimes the trail isn’t well groomed. There are obstacles, challenges, and temptations that we have to climb over and cross. We become very busy avoiding and trying to manage the challenges, and in our looking at the ground, we get lost. 
    If we lift our heads and look up though, we can see that our path wouldn’t be so hard to navigate if we had only followed the blazes. The blazes aren’t hard to find, but they are easy to miss in our distraction. 
    God isn’t hiding from us, he gave us his word, church communities, and other believers to help guide us. But it’s easy to get distracted, even if we are on the right path we can get lost. That is why we need to stay alert, with our heads held high looking to him for guidance.
In remembering my backpacking experience, it’s often easy to get caught up in the things that went wrong - the hike felt long, we had a hard time setting up our tent, one of the girls had to be hiked out at 10 at night, my feet hurt, I got my shoe wet when starting out the next day and on and on. 
    But although the feelings of pain, fear, and exhaustion can seem prevalent, there is still much good to be found in my experience. 
    We played games, we laughed, we ate together around a huge fire, we made memories, and we got to have an experience that lots of other girls and their moms never have. 
    We got to experience God’s creation in a more intimate way, by living closer with it, even if it was only for 24 hours.

Belle Thomas

​Belle is the writer behind An Old Fashioned Girl. She is passionate about Jesus, good books, and living a beautiful life