Words and wilderness

My backpacking trips have been alternately miserable and glorious, harsh and enlightening. Occasion­ally I’ve gotten in over my head (once I wound up with hypothermia while wearing cotton in a thunderstorm), and at other times the aftermath of a hike in the backcountry has been downright painful (like when I lost toenails after a 33-mile trip in too-new, too-small boots).

Regardless of the challenges, such times away without frills or distractions are touchstones for remembering who I am. I carry everything I need on my back. No laptop, no phone, and especially no books. Even paperbacks are too heavy in an already overloaded pack when something as light as my toothbrush must be scrutinized for weight.

But after reading Belden Lane’s Backpacking with the Saints: Wilderness Hiking as Spiritual Practice, I’m tempted to begin toting a tome or two. For Lane, backpacking is more than just a hike in the great outdoors. It’s a chance to explore words that invite us more deeply into the spiritual life. What Lane seeks in the wilderness, he says, is not exercise or escape. Rather, he is looking for the physical and spiritual depth of intimacy that the combination of words and wilderness provides.