Freedom and Solitude: “The Secret Worlds of Colin Fletcher”

There is a certain amount of synergy between my hikes in the Appalachian Mountains and boating on the Chesapeake Bay. Once I find a somewhat secluded cove, drop the anchor, and cut off the engine, I am left with a silence broken only by the sounds of birds and the waves upon the hull, much like the silence found on a breezy mountain summit. The advantage of boating over hiking is that I can bring along books about hiking to read while anchored in the silence. This last outing across the Chesapeake Bay, I brought along Colin Fletcher’s book of essays, “The Secret Worlds of Colin Fletcher.”

Colin Fletcher hiked and wrote long before Bill Bryson’s “A Walk in the Woods,” and Cheryl Strayed’s “Wild.”  But we do not hear much about Fletcher’s work anymore within mainstream hiking, backpacking, and trekking media. Before and immediately after his death in 2007, Fletcher had been called the “father of modern backpacking,” the result of two books he wrote about solo long-distance treks  in the late 1960s along the eastern length of California and a considerable section of the Grand Canyon. In 1968, He followed his earlier books with a backpacking how-to guide, “The Complete Walker,” which often  has been called the “backpacker’s bible.” I read the second edition of “The Complete Walker” as a teenager in the mid-1970s. Like many others, this was the book that inspired me to go into the mountains with a backpack. Fletcher likely has been left out of current hiking and backpacking discussions because much of his writings, especially about backpacking gear and trailcraft, are a bit dated. However, his underpinning philosophy of environmentalism and spiritualism centered on the natural world still resonate with hikers and long-distance backpackers. More than the “father of modern backpacking,” Fletcher now should be considered a sage of modern hiking and long-distance backpacking culture.

I have been giving a great deal of thought lately to the values of hiking and long-distance culture. Fletcher’s essays captured a few of the key values central to this culture, particularly Freedom and Solitude. Fletcher’s goal in hiking, or walking as he called his outings, was to cross an imaginary boundary between the chaotic modern world into a peaceful natural world. Once a hiker crosses that boundary they enter a world of Freedom, a core value of hiking and long-distance backpacking culture. Fletcher described this sense of Freedom as a “world in which I would know that the hours and days ahead lay safely in no one else’s hands but my own.” Freedom for Fletcher also meant that the number of days spent in the wilderness or the number of miles hiked were irrelevant. Hiking from point A to point B was simply an excuse to be in the wilderness. What really mattered to Fletcher was seeing the world in a different light and in its natural silence. Freedom in the wilderness opens up the hiker’s mind to become more aware of their natural environment, their place in the environment, and of their internal being. Silence in the wilderness, not the lack of noise, but rather the natural silence of the forest, opens up the hiker’s mind to introspection.

For Fletcher, silence was best experienced in Solitude, another core value of hiking and long-distance backpacking. As a solitudinarian myself, I couldn’t agree more. Even if you are hiking with a partner or a trail family, finding moments of solitude in the wilderness to truly listen to the silence can be very rewarding. There is an existing body of research that suggests solitude and silence in the wilderness is therapeutic. Using solitude for reflection, meditation, or just appreciation of the silence, is very beneficial for self-growth. While Fletcher is best known for his long-distance solo treks, he wrote that the benefits of solitude can even be found on hikes of less than a day’s length. Simply walking free, in silence, Fletcher described the wonder of the natural environment, from a wide sky to a rolling green landscape; from a clump of daisies to hovering grasshoppers; all around “sky and green grass, space and silence – and the wind.” Freedom and solitude are just two of the core values of hiking and long-distance backpacking culture. However, as you read passages like this from “The Secret Worlds of Colin Fletcher” you might realize that these are perhaps more than central values of hiking and long-distance backpacking culture. They may become why you hike or go on long-distance backpacking treks in the first place, and ultimately, become the central purpose why you go into the wilderness.