Into the Wild
“Who would do this?” whined Lil’ Pine as we pushed up the umpteenth hill of our 12 mile day. Our response was ragged grunts while paused in a muggy meadow to mop brows with beyond-dirty bandanas. It’s a question she’d posed several times before amidst fits of exasperated exhaustion, but not the right one. Not who , but why . Why would any sane, civilized homo sapien forgo the utility of a vehicle? Of running, potable water? Of leak-proof roofs to protect from the blessed-yet-god-forsaken rain trickling through boots to damp socks—swamp ground for breeding blisters. Water, water everywhere: stalwart in soaked sleeping bags; matted in hair where there, at least, it breaks the grease accumulated from two days sans shower (of the heated, tiled variety anyhow). My “why” before embarking on the 22-mile backpacking loop around Mount Rogers in Virginia was to reunite with frie...