Enjoying the Process

Matt and I spent some time this weekend talking with a couple who is planning on hiking the John Muir Trail (JMT) later this summer. This is a 210 mile-long trail in the California Sierra Nevada region. It starts in Yosemite National Park and ends at Mt Whitney—the tallest peak in the continental US. As Matt and I and a friend are planning on doing our own trip on this trail next summer, we were talking to them about the permitting process and planning for daily distance, pack weight, food, and other gear considerations. All that discussion got me musing about the experience.

I wondered what would it be like for me to start at in Yosemite and end at the Mt Whitney Portal approximately three weeks later? What would I think about as I walked? Would I enjoy my food each day? Would I be able to overcome fatigue and pain from my exertions? Would I feel mostly positive as I walked, or would I occasionally succumb to feelings of melancholy? Would I always want to walk together with Matt and our friend or would we want to walk alone sometimes?

I have often said that one of the keys to success in long-distance day hiking is enjoying the process. This is the ability to find joy and meaning in something as simple as walking and being in nature. The goal of reaching the destination becomes secondary to enjoying the trip and each moment you spend doing it. I often compare it to working on a puzzle. People such as myself who work puzzles of many thousands of pieces don’t do it just see what the picture looks like when it’s done—we can look at the box to see that. We do it because we enjoy the process of examining each piece of the puzzle to see where it might fit in the whole. We like to experience the work in progress as we build slowly to the completed image.

I think the same experiential desire works for long-distance hiking whether it is for twenty or for several thousand miles that is involved in doing a hike like the Pacific Crest Trail.

If you are unable to cultivate an enjoyment of the hiking process, and instead focus mainly on reaching your destination, you may find longer hikes frustrating and boring. If the weather is less than stellar, if thunderclouds threaten, or if one of your companions develops a serious injury—turning the entire group around before reaching the destination—you may become angry or feel cheated from reaching your goal.

But if you enjoy the process, you will enjoy the beauty of the trail and scenery, the conversation of hiking partners, the taste of your food and cold water, and even the feeling of your body as you move on the trail. Reaching the destination will be an added pleasure—not the only one.