I was talking with a man who I had just met at church today. While sharing various things about each other, we agreed that we like mountains. I mentioned that I like hiking in the mountains. He responded, “Why do you like hiking?”
I paused, not because I had to think why, but because as I momentarily replied, “How don’t I like it?” I could go on and on. The list that I gave him was brief but suggested the deep variety of my reasons for liking to be in the woods. It was fun to make and a to z list of why I like to hike:
-availability: usually at no cost other than the gas to get there and ready whenever I
have the opportunity to avail myself
-challenge: pushing myself, exercise, distance, steepness, bushwhacking,
negotiating difficult terrain
-colors: leaves of early Spring, deep greens of Summer; Fall’s polychrome; the
bronze buds and hues of grays and browns of winter bark; the many faces of
sky and water per season, weather, and time of day
-conversation: with God and with a hiking partner
-exploration: finding new, rarely visited, unique, beautiful spots
-flora: trees in every season and species and shape and maturity; shrubs
from Flaming Azalea to Doghobble to Rhododendron to Sweetbush;
herbaceous varieties in bloom and sprouting and full foliage; fungi, lichen,
mosses, and liverworts
-geology: types; landforms in rock and soil, especially cliffs; random rocks- shiny,
unique, unexpected
-glory: Due and seen for the infinite, beauty-loving, intelligent, personal Creator
-growing: alive, flourishing, productive, resilient, reproducing
-health: to body, mind, and spirit or trying hard and resting in emotion
-invigorating: Am I beginning to be synonymously redundant?
-memories: of more than 50 years of consistently being on the trail
-promoting: curiosity, knowledge, scientific and Creationist thinking
-sharing: seeing one or two others’, only rarely with groups, pleasure at things I
show them
-solitude: alone (I do like to hike alone sometimes.), quiet, space for thinking, lack
of people, distance and exclusion from development
-topography: Folded mountains particularly, I guess since that is what I grew up seeing.
-trails: smooth, rough, steep, flat, lightly traveled, leading somewhere or to the
known goal
-variety: Just look at this list!
-water: streams flowing and falling and frozen, ponds, sloughs and bogs, rain,
clouds, humidity and fog, snow and sleet and ice
-weather: anticipation, arrival, artistry, animating
-zoological: mammals from bears to bats to mountain boomers, deer
birds- song, raptors, water, gliders, woodpeckers owls; reptiles- lizards,
snakes (I don’t seek out the poisonous ones but they do bring and adrenaline
rush.); spiders and other arachnids, insects (not mosquitoes or gnats),
millipedes and centipedes; fish in the streams; crustaceans- snail and crayfish (We call them
crawdads.); amphibians- frogs, toads, salamanders
I wonder what I left off. I am so blessed and thankful to God for the opportunity and love of the mountains. They so speak of His loveliness and power and creativity and sustaining hand.
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