[at-l] So why do you want to hike the trail?

[Sloetoe]

--- greyowl at rcn.com wrote:

> Because it is there? How Victorian.
### Always the good question. But why the
disparagement of the good answers? "Timelessness" is
itself a quality proven by enduring time; "cliche" is
a co-op by the vision-lacking uninspired.

### Anyway, I offer these responses to running ultras;
I have merely substituted [hike] for [run].

1)        
> > Date:    Sat, 23 Apr 2005 06:31:50 -0700
> > From:    Tom Thornton <hipwrtrash at YAHOO.COM>
Why I do ultras:  "I am seeking the "epiphany" - that
moment when physical exhaustion and bodily depletion
drains away all barriers to truth and knowledge, and
my mind becomes a dry sponge thirsty to soak up all of
life's answers."

2)
"... Perhaps the genius of [hiking] is its supreme
lack of utility. It makes no sense in a world of space
ships and supercomputers to [hike] vast distances on
foot. There is no money in it and no fame, frequently
not even the approval of peers. But as poets, apostles
and philosophers have insisted from the dawn of time,
there is more to life than logic and common sense. The
[hikers] know this instinctively. And they know
something else that is lost on the sedentary. They
understand, perhaps better than anyone, that the doors
to the spirit will swing open with physical effort. In
[hiking] such long and taxing distances they answer a
call from the deepest realms of their being -- a call
that asks who they are ..." ~David Blaikie 

3)
"I wasn't a truly genuine trail [hiker] until March 7,
1992 at the Wild Oak 50 near Harrisonburg, Virginia.
It was a rainy day and simultaneously, while I was
piddling on the run, chewing on an energy bar and
washing it down with Mountain Dew, my nose was
dripping and I farted. That was the ultimate defining
moment in my trail [hiking] career, if not my entire
life." 
- Bob Boeder, Beyond The Marathon: The Grand Slam of
Trail Ultrarunning

> So the adventure begins.  Baby steps at first as my
> wife is joining me and she is not one for adventure.

### Obviously, just with that statement, it's plain
that you *are* one for adventure.

> See you all on the trail/river/ocean/mountain, etc. 
The first step is moving in July.  The second step is
a bare bones webpage.  I will post the hiking here.
> Bob
### You promise a cool read. Fleet feet and Godspeed!
sloetoe

Spatior! Nitor! Nitor! Tempero!
   Pro Pondera Et Meliora.