This sort of maybe goes better into 'Trip Reports', except that I think in this little write-up I managed to capture a lot of why I love backpacking altogether.

http://www.returnfromexile.com/2011/12/the-night-of-the-storm-part-1/

You don't have to agree with the spiritual matters of the post. But the natural stuff, I believe almost everyone on this forum will relate to. This is just for your enjoyment, and you're welcome to comment.

(also note there's a part 2)

nice man, i did enjoy.

I liked it.

A nicely written story. You captured much of what I enjoy about hiking alone. It wouldn't be much fun without having fears, self doubts and a general feeling of not being in control. How often I find myself aspiring to grace!

Nice write-up. Thank you for posting. It's interesting (personally) that you note city folk are often unnerved by the night. I discovered this in college when I met my first friends from large cities. They couldn't believe I'd just go out walking at night. I couldn't believe how they jumped at every sound. Meeting of the worlds!

Thanks everyone for the feedback!

On that last bit, yeah -- there is a jumpiness that I've never been able to shake, at least not without spending a considerable amount of time in the wilderness, like a week or more. After that point, the urbanite in my bones kind of relaxes and gives up, and then things are chill.

In broader news, I'm convinced that city life is somehow a subtle poison in the soul of man. That's not meant to be a condemnation toward anybody, or cities in general for that matter. It's just that, my intuition as I've grown older (I'm a ripe old 26) is that cities offer density and variety and connection and endless opportunity -- which is why most people in the USA live in them -- but I think our minds pay a price for all that stimulus.

By contrast, the few times in my life that I've lived and worked in rural settings, for weeks or months at a time, have offered me a kind of peace that I've almost never known in the city. I've slept better during those cumulative couple of years than I have in all the rest of my (mostly urban) life.

If anyone has any commentary on that, I'd be interested. It's one of those secrets of life that I guess I'll be forever investigating.

You speak of sleeping better in rural settings--anytime I have been overnight in a city I have slept terribly. Noise, streetlights, and the 24 hour schedule weak havoc with my circadian clock. I've read of two schools of thought re: population, resources, and infrastructure. The first assumes greater urbanization to simplify long-distance resource delivery, while the second assumes a re-ruralization that allows local resources to sustain smaller population centers. I know which I'd prefer, but then I'm also a person who moved to the midwest years ago and is still vaguely unsettled by the lack of trees. Richard Manning in Grassland suggests that humans have a primeval connection with open, treeless spaces...I beg to differ. I guess I cling tightly to the landscape I grew up with (Appalachia). To use the old cliche, cities are nice places to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there.

@spelt!: Richard Manning in Grassland suggests that humans have a primeval connection with open, treeless spaces...I beg to differ. I guess I cling tightly to the landscape I grew up with (Appalachia).

I believe you have that right, or at least pretty close. I know folks from the open west who feel uncomfortable (claustrophobic) when visiting wooded areas and also folks from the woods who feel uncomfortable (exposed) when in the open west. But in some cases anyway it isn't about where they grew up, it's where they've lived for a long time (decades).

@Ian: there is a jumpiness that I've never been able to shake, at least not without spending a considerable amount of time in the wilderness

I know what you mean. But after I came to understand the value of challenging my comfort zones I lost much of the jumpiness because it is replaced by the anticipation of potential growth.

OH, and as far as I'm concerned there's no need to apologize for the spiritual side of the blog. Just as there's no need for others to apologize when they share their beliefs that nothing exists that they cannot sense and/or measure (even though I can't agree with them).