“10 Values of Hiker Trash Culture,” Sprout, Thru-Hiking Culture/Inspiration, The Trek
“When HYOH Does NOT Apply [Part 1],” Kenny Howell, Thru-Hiking Culture, The Trek
“When HYOH Does NOT Apply [Part 2],” Kenny Howell, Thru-Hiking Culture, The Trek
‘Why Thru-Hikers Are Obsessed with Fantasy Books,” Rebecca Booroojian, Adventure/Hiking, Outside Online
“13 Useful Smartphone Apps for Your Next Thru-Hike,” Danielle Krolewicz, Advice/Gear, The Trek
Colin Fletcher, “The Secret Worlds of Colin Fletcher;” “The Secret Worlds of Colin Fletcher” is a collection of essays published in 1989 by the acknowledged father of modern backpacking, Colin Fletcher. The essays read like journal entries, chronicling several of Fletcher’s hikes, both day hikes and treks lasting weeks, through the wilderness near his home in California, along the Colorado River, in Alaska, and even in Mongolia. Fletcher’s underpinning philosophy of environmentalism and spiritualism centered on the natural world resonate throughout the essays. More than the father of modern backpacking, “The Secret Worlds of Colin Fletcher” reveals him as a sage of modern hiking and long-distance backpacking culture. Fletcher’s essays captured two key values central to hiking and long-distance backpacking culture: 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. What 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. There is an existing body of research that suggests Solitude and silence in the wilderness is therapeutic. 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.” From passages like this from “The Secret Worlds of Colin Fletcher,” hikers and long-distance backpackers will no doubt see their own trail experiences on the pages.