Becoming a passionate backpacker can change your perspective on what you consider important. Be forewarned, the high regard a person places on money and possessions may be diminished, as you realize those days on the trail with little of either are among the best and most memorable of your life.
Eventually a backpacker figures out there are three things that make you tick, and which can sustain happiness - good health, time, and the ability to satisfy a craving for exploring and discovery (wanderlust).
1. Good Health
It goes without saying you have to be in good health to backpack. A basic level of training is needed to you can comfortably carry your pack. Training can start weeks or even better, months ahead of time. There are few things that prepare you for carrying a heavy load, than carrying a heavy load.
My training solution is to shoulder my 37 pound backpack on my daily walks, all year long. That seems to be enough to maintain the shoulders and back and leg tone that I need to go backpacking any time of the year.
2. Time
If your life is too busy to find the time to take a few days off every month and hike up a trail, something is wrong, and needs to be fixed. You don't want to put your backpacking off, because there will come a time for all of us that we are not strong enough to go.
This hit home for me when I realized that in fifteen years I will be a few months away from my 70th birthday. If I can fill up those years with countless wilderness treks with my dogs, I will consider myself blessed.
3. Wanderlust (. . . satisfying a craving for)
People that find themselves driven to hike up an unfamiliar trail, to explore forests and mountain ranges new to them, possess the spirit of wanderlust.
Showing up out there and paying attention allows you to see things more beautiful than you ever thought possible, and therein is what you reap from your wandering tendancies.
What comes to mind is last summer when I camped next to an 180 acre lake, up high in the Montana backcountry. The lake was glacier fed, and had a turquoise blue tint. I sat there in the evenings with my dogs and watched ospreys dip into the lake for fish, while shadows overtook the valley.
And then there was the time I was approaching a mountain basin when two hawks descended and circled on the air currents in front of the snow-covered peaks.
To witness something like that makes you understand what real riches are. It also is a powerful motivator for maintaining your health, and finding the time for wilderness journeys.
Here are some images from my wilderness trips.
