5 Life Lessons I Learned From Walking for 28 Days on Trail
In June 2021, I decided to leave my job and take some time off. My last day was on a Friday. The very next day, I was on the road, headed towards Lone Pine, ready to hike a section of the Pacific Crest Trail.
I went on to hike 300 miles in 28 days. There was no internet. No cell service. All I had was my backpack, my hiking companion, and a whole lot of walking. It was in that month that, for the first time, I surrendered myself to the quiet and peace that the wilderness had to offer. I turned off the noise of societal expectations and social pressures, and I simply learned to be.
On trail, I had a lot of time to think and observe. By the end of my journey, I had learned a few things that I hope I can continue to incorporate into my life.
1) Quiet time is necessary. And, it's actually productive.
I used to think that quiet time was a waste of time. If I had a free 30 minutes, I would fill it with checking my email, making a phone call, or messaging a friend. Even when hanging out with friends, I'd feel the itch to make the hangout more productive — which I would do by stretching or foam rolling while we chatted.
But there's no way to get rid of downtime on trail. There's simply too much of it. As I got more comfortable with the quiet, I noticed something. I actually liked the silence. Because while waiting for dinner to cook, or walking alone in a meadow, I actually had the time and space to listen to myself and hear what was on my mind.
My mind drifted through all sorts of topics. Community. Relationships. Creativity. Nostalgia. Insecurity. Bias. And with a quiet environment, I had the capacity to observe how I felt and dig into things that I had never given myself time to think about.
Through this practice, I learned a lot about myself. It became clear to me that human interaction energizes me, while technical details do not. I realized that my life was missing exploration and creativity because I was so obsessed with making every moment count. I finally admitted to myself that I have strong biases that affect who I let into my life. And all I needed was a bit of quiet time to figure it out.
2) Not everything has to be about productivity and efficiency.
I realized on trail that exploration is just as important. Exploration makes life more vibrant. If not for exploration, would we have found the most perfect swimming spot at Evolution Lakes? Would we have decided to veer off the JMT onto Fish Creek, where we discovered the most magical hot springs? If not for exploration, would my friend and I have discovered our joy in making up songs and stories together as we walked?
Without exploration, we might stop noticing details off the path that could peak our interest and take us somewhere new. We might not discover a source for a new potential passion. Without exploration, we'd lose our ability to grow in unexpected ways.
And so, I'd like to keep that exploration mindset moving forward. Not everything I do has to directly translate to something measurable or impactful. Exploring might actually help me find paths in my life that I otherwise never would have uncovered.
3) Hike your own hike.
Such a simple phrase, yet so freeing. Two of my trail friends would often would say this phrase, like when we were deciding on the next day's trail plan, or when someone would decide to hike alone for a bit. Even though we decided to join together and be a tramily, we all understood the importance of respecting each person's decisions. There was no social pressure to fall in line.
The motto was so different from how I'd been living my life. I had always felt a need to prove myself, fulfill my potential, and blow the expectations of my friends and family out the water. Everything I did had other people's opinions in mind.
But it was time for me to throw my fear of judgment behind and make decisions for myself. I need to be brave enough to explore what I care most about. I need to hike my own hike.
4) Don't judge the size of your steps. As long as you keep moving forward, they will add up and take you on an incredible journey.
Sometimes it seems like other people's success balloons overnight. Someone's business is going public. Someone else is now YouTube famous. Another person just wrote a book.
The trail gave me a great metaphor to understand this. Because each day, we had to climb a 1000+ ft pass, and when we'd get to the top, we'd snap a celebratory picture. But in that picture, you don't see the time it took, the pain we were in, the feelings of disbelief that we'd be hiking that far today. Our picture at the top, just like these people's success stories, only shows the highlights. And by only hearing about the highlights, we get a skewed perspective about the time and effort needed to do something big
In my time off, I can't help but sometimes worry, thinking things like "Will these 3 months be worth it? What will I achieve?" But I hope that I can keep reminding myself to take things step by step. Each step doesn't look like much on its own, but it does add up. And maybe I'll find down the road that these steps led me to something great.
5) Enjoy the present.
In the city, I feel like we are constantly stressing about the work we have yet to finish and the chores we have yet to do. Our minds are so crowded by deadlines and todos that always planning for the future.
But on trail, you enjoy the present. You take the time to look at the clouds, appreciate the sunset, or savor a chocolate peanut butter packet. And it was in those moments that I felt true contentment.
What's stopping us from enjoying the present in our day to day life? Even acknowledging one small moment could make us so much more content in our lives. And I hope I can live by that thinking moving forward.
Now that I'm back in society, I can already feel the ways of the trail fading. The pace of modern day life is hard to fight, as are its expectations. But I hope my writing here can preserve what it is I found in that glorious month on the trail.