Trail Beauty

Finding the path

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Navigation can be as simple as putting one foot in front of the other on a clear path. It can also be a confusing, shifting & often a mentally taxing, dangerous and difficult task indeed. Here in Florida it can be a snake, alligator, and the state bird (mosquito) infested pathless challenge one minute and a rut that even the newest hiker can easily follow the next. How you prepare for your next hike makes all the difference. What research do you do? What navigational aids do you use? When do you break out the compass? When do you break out your Inreach Explorer? Of all the decisions you make while hiking. One of the most important you have to make is when do you NOT use your dead reckoning skills? Simple decisions; but they are some of the most important decisions you will make as a hiker. When and how you answer those questions will make the difference between being lost a mere hundred yards off course; to finding yourself lost, totally turned around, and at the mercy of Mother Nature. Remember the acronym KISS … always “Keep It Simple Stupid”. Define your level of navigational expertise and act accordingly; before you hike! Don’t make the mistake of overreaching. Don’t ever convince yourself that you know what you are doing. When the going gets rough and decisions seem to be a jumbled mess – remember SYAD – sit your ass down – don’t make stupid mistakes. Think your way through it. It is easier to hike back to the last point you knew where you were “exactly” or blunder straight ahead and get totally lost. Hikes should be broken down in segments. The more confusing the terrain, the shorter the segments should be. In the first photo, you better be taking compass readings and orienting your self to the sun often. By that, I mean every few minutes. In the second photo … you can go all day without taking a compass bearing. Its remembering that when the path changes. Get a bearing … start out on the right foot … and you’ll end up on a clear path shortly. It is so easy to blunder forward, look at the wildlife, the flowers, the fauna … opps which way is up? Its then that the decisions you make will define whether you have a great hike or an “O crap” I’m in the weeds now experience.

This series will focus on whether there is no path or one that is clearly defined. We need a simple and straightforward plan for each and every trail we take. It would be nice if all trails were a clear path that even the most challenged of us can manage. Each of the paths above presents unique difficulties. When do you admit that I’m a bit out of my depth? My take; it is ALWAYS before you begin any hike in a new area. Prepare for the worst case scenario and you will always be ahead of the game.

The same can be said for all the seasons. Its just as easy or perhaps easier to find yourself lost in the snow as it is in the swamp or a beautiful forest. Keep watching … more to come.

Leave No Trace

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I’ve been asked so many times what “leave no trace” means. When I’m talking to folks about hiking I’m usually asked something along the lines of”: Does it mean hike while pulling a branch behind you to erase your footprints? Does it mean training in Ninja skills to evade detection and walking across rice paper without breaking the surface? The term is often misunderstood and often used to mean anything the writer is thinking about. The National Park Service puts out a DVD on the subject. There is a website dedicated to just this topic … its LNT.ORG . I could write for hours about the subject but I’ll begin this topic with a few generalized thoughts and leave the detailed explainations and opportunities to become involved to LNT. Some basic but vitally important points are simple common sense. 1. Don’t urinate or defecate near a water source – the common guideline is 100-200 feet. Don’t forget to dig a hole … carry a trowel for just this purpose. In the dead of night this can be a bit tricky and for some a bit scary. Its easier to scout a path and an easily identifiable spot for you to do your business in the daylight as apposed to waiting until midnight to realize you haven’t picked a spot. I’m in my 60’s so I have a bladder the size of a peanut and although it might be a simple slip out of the tent for a quick pee – this adds up to a serious threat to environmentally sensitive lands. Of course, don’t forget to bury and then step on the raised mound to truly leave no trace. Animals mark their territories with body fluids. Don’t threaten them with yours or they may come visit your tent. 2. Bury your trash including all wrappers, cans, leftover food, drink packets etc etc. There is nothing worse than hiking onto an absolutely beautiful overlook, open meadow, overhanging tree canopy to find cigarette butts, candy wrappers, food tins … it will make your blood boil. 3. Camp Fires – although pretty and they have a purpose to keep away the creepy crawlies – for the most part they are truly useless and often are a horrible waste of resources. If you have to have one – use only “wood you find on the ground” don’t chop, hew or otherwise cut down anything living. It is a true marker of our human hubris – our pride and the need to show we rule nature. Be one with your camping space – not only will it serve you but others for weeks, months and years to come. 4. Hammocks, Tents and lean-tos: If… you hammock, use a large enough rope with something between the rope and the tree to keep from marking and injuring the tree. If you use a tent, place your footprint on grass or readily renewable fodder. In Florida we use spanish moss pulled from trees (not that found lying on the ground -chiggers), leaves are nice – try to avoid pulling up moss, ferns and plants to make things a bit more comfortable for you. If you have to make a shelter because its suddenly snowing and your tent went down river during your last river crossing – again, use dead wood. So in a nutshell you can see the forest for the trees. Leave no trace – just means – don’t be stupid … you are not the first, nor will you be the last person on whatever trail you are following. Leave it the same way you found it … unless its been visited by a jerk … then clean up after the moron and know that its better than when you found it.

Why we leave no trace

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Hikers generally follow a trail or path that has been trodden upon to the point of developing a bare path of clay or sand or rock. Yet the beauty that surrounds them; often within inches of the most well traveled path, is breathtaking. When I think about the billions of years it took to bring about such beauty and to find it growing where it may never be seen; the diversity and complexity of this island home takes my breath away.  It feels like I am an intruder, a visitor that has stumbled into Eden.  When I think of the people that have passed this way; some days, some years, some millennia between their passing … I cannot help but feel responsible for the preservation of this fragile Earth we call home.  Although nature has shown itself to be resilient to our presence I fear we will overwhelm even the complexity of life that exists today.   It is my fervent prayer that someday we, and I’m talking species, may adopt the hiker’s creed; leave no trace.   I don’t know that it is even possible for us to reign ourselves in and place our needs second to this whirling blue ball but I do know that if we do not; nature will reclaim it for us and specifically from us.