We don’t really get to know ourselves until we are alone and faced with obstacles that challenge our way of thinking and reacting.  Hiking solo is all about taking the time to find out who resides inside.  We tend to allow ourselves to be defined by the “stuff” that surrounds us and the “folks” that occupy our time.  In truth, until you step outside of your comfort zone; you will never be free.  It can be hiking, sailing, parachuting, rock climbing; activities that challenge us truly define us.  Become yourself on the trail that leads to adventure and insight.  Your life will be better for it.  Give yourself up and find the true you.  Hiking solo doesn’t mean hiking stupid; if fact, it means the opposite.  When you hike alone you use your senses to their full potential.  You’re not occupying your time with benign chit chat, anecdotes designed to relay how cool you are or your intellectual prowess.  If we shut up long enough to listen to that small still voice within – you are truly on the road to discovery.  Hiking solo doesn’t mean always hiking alone it means “Hike your own trail”.  Twenty people can hike solo – together – grouped for safety but each on a pilgrimage of discovery.  There are pilgrimage journeys renowned for the distance covered to be life altering.  The road to Mecca; the Camino de Santiago; the road to Damascus.  I don’t know if the path is that important.  I do know the journey is essential.  From laps around an indoor track to continental divide trail.  It’s not the path; it’s the process.