On the first day of class, Onno spoke about when we go into nature and we expect to find something. At times, it's disappointing when we don't find what we are looking for (what ever that may be.) This struck me because I honestly had not felt that way going into the woods or nature before. I wondered why this feeling was foreign to me and I realised that I had not really gone into the woods with goals or any intentions beyond going into the woods or nature and exploring.
After that class and living here in the Adirondacks, I started to go into nature with goals such as finding the absolute best camp site in the pouring rain, finding the top of the mountain in a timely manner, finding a decent place to swim in the ravine. If I didn't find what I wanted on time or at all, it was very disappointing. I feel I miss a lot of what is around me when I come into the woods with this mindset. Instead of enjoying the trail to the top, I worry only about getting there.
I found a mountain trail book in the ghost room of the main house during the first week which was filled with explanations of trails. The first sentence of one explanation said, "This trail is for someone who enjoys the mountain as much as the view." This sentence really stuck with me. I have been trying to approach everything this way- not only keeping the end goal in mind but enjoying my way there too.
In the first chapter of Hammond's Hills and Lakes, he mentions Plattsburgh as a "classic ground." He later says "battlefields are commonplace." He advises the reader to venture to areas where "civilisation has made a pause." I notice that this paused civilisation is something people often look for in the Adirondacks. I remember speaking to a friend about a long hike she took in the park and she said it was wonderful until she found some trash and socks.
At first, I thought she was upset by this because someone had littered. But she told me as soon as she saw the trash and socks, she no longer felt like this was her adventure, someone had done it already and the illusion of civilisation paused was erased. I again was surprised by this thought because I had never felt that way, but I now understand it. It is interesting that we look so hard for that untamed wilderness that we sometimes forget to look at the slightly tamed wilderness we hike or paddle through. Is it no longer valuable because someone else also appreciated it?
I hope that I haven't permanently ruined your wilderness walks! I guess what I meant was that we all have some expectations, some desires, when we "escape" into wilderness, even if that is a release or pause of some kind, and that it doesn't always occur. Another point I was trying to make has to do with nature writing--that nature writing teaches us that going into the natural world will give us something. This has to do with nature writing itself--that there is no point writing about one's experience in the natural world unless we have something to say about it, and that having something to say itself becomes a kind of goal. I suppose this can ruin the experience of just being in the woods. This itself is interesting, of course, that writing (the need to do it, whether as the result of an assignment or an internal desire) can ruin experience.
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