There is something about having to carry all that you’re going to need to live in the wilderness for days on your back that makes you question your entire life. You begin to whittle down what you’re going to need to just the essentials as you pack. You find out what is important to you and in life in general as you carry the heavy weight of all your packing choices on the trail. You realize that so much in life is just extra background noise. These extra things are just creature comforts beyond the basics that have slowly distracted you from what you believe it means to be alive. It becomes the real-life question of what you would grab during an emergency situation to survive out in the wild. You test yourself and the community of other people and animals around you to coexist in an unpredictable world. When you backpack, you get to fully immerse yourself in nature, find peace, and think about what really matters to you. 

The opportunity to grow and learn about myself is what I get out of backpacking. I get to learn something new each time about myself and the environment. I also get to know whoever else I decide to backpack with if I choose not to go solo. It’s an active meditation that makes me stronger mentally, physically, and spiritually. I can focus on solving problems in my everyday life and on the trail. I can be intentional about exercise that moves me to witness beautiful landscapes of mostly untouched places, and I can define what matters most to me as I make decisions in the wild. For me, backpacking is a gorgeous social experience you play on yourself to find out who you really are. 

I experience a lighter level of this social experiment whenever I go hiking. Climbing mountains tests your mental drive, your body, and your belief in yourself. You just spend fewer moments in the wilderness and less access to the rest of society when you’re out day hiking versus hiking to a location and trusting that you will be fine surviving the night with whatever’s on your back in the outdoors. Hiking heals, and backpacking just takes it up a notch by giving you greater challenges. You come out stronger after a backpacking trip every time and are rewarded with the gift of knowing your limits and that you can work to push past them. 

I recently wandered more than twenty miles over nine days in the John Muir Wilderness, Inyo National Forest, and Sequoia National Park within the High Sierra Nevada Mountains with eleven kids aged eleven to eighteen through Outward Bound Adventures. I had to feed them, teach them about science, and keep them all alive and motivated to follow me for days outside without a shower. I not only had to keep myself willing to continue the trip but also the eleven kids who really didn’t understand what they were getting themselves into until they experienced backpacking for themselves.  

I do this trip when I can because I know that hiking heals, and backpacking takes it up a notch. I know not everyone can help lead a group of kids in such a challenging space. I know that there is something about having to carry all that you’re going to need to live in the wilderness for days on your back that makes you question your entire life. It gives kids who need the extra time to begin to whittle down what they’re going to need to just the essentials as they pack. The kids I help guide in the wild find out what is important to them in life and in general as they carry the heavy weight of all their packing choices on the trail.