This is the first of my posts about my upcoming backpacking trips. I plan to write more before leaving and to finish the series upon my return.

Last night I started organizing all my gear, in order to see what I can and cannot carry on my trips. It is a methodical process of taking things out of boxes, folding them down as small as possible, and getting on and off a bathroom scale with my pack to make sure it will be under 45 pounds, with camera and water. The process inevitably leads introspection and consideration of my motives for doing such things…

When planning to go into the wilderness, I relate more to Meliville’s Ishmael than I do to Shelly, Emerson, or Thoreau. I fully expect moments of sublimation and transcendental experience to happen once I am there, but my main impetus for going is that I am ready to start knocking the hats off my fellow citizens. I have not romanticized the wilderness to the extent that Ishmael has the sea, and I am fully aware that Emerson and Thoreau never really ventured too far into nature, so it should be Muir and Abbey who are really on my mind, men who ventured out into the mountains of the West. Nevertheless, Ishmael’s flight from society with all its rules, customs, and niceties is what drives me to pack what I can wear upon my back and set off into the mountains.

(more…)

tags: Backpacking | camping | hiking | transcendentalism | wilderness