Editor’s note: Next week we unveil our first half GetBackpacking! plans for 2022. This week, for the yet-to-be-convinced of the joys of backcountry adventure, we look at the “why” — Why we do this?
Some folks, even avid hikers, have a knee-jerk reaction to backpacking. To the perceived discomfort, the perceived inconvenience, the perceived difficulty. Backpacking’s sometimes negative image is, in our opinion, a perception problem.
It is the season that inspires our great philosophers. Friedrich Nietzsche, for instance, wrote: “Notice that autumn is more the season of the soul than of nature.”
Or this, from a more contemporary purveyor of percipient thought:
“It’s the first day of autumn! A time of hot chocolatey mornings, and toasty marshmallow evenings, and, best of all, leaping into leaves!”
In today’s GetHiking! Southeast Podcast we scout a potential graduation trip route for our first GetBackpacking! Intro to Backpacking class in Virginia. In the podcast, we explain what, in our opinion, makes for a good weekend trip for first-time backpackers. That is, a trip that will get them hooked on backcountry camping.
Why backpack?
Here’s why, as documented in this three-and-a-half-minute video we shot during our June 24-27 GetBackpacking! trip exploring Virginia’s Triple Crown. Four days, three nights, 35 miles, three major climbs, three iconic views and great scenery throughout. Challenging? Yup. But oh so worth it.
Memorial Day — and the start of summer!
OK, technically summer doesn’t begin until the summer solstice on June 20. But culturally in the U.S. summer always commences Memorial Day weekend and ends Labor Day weekend. (And yes, technically summer doesn’t officially end until the summer equinox, this year on September 22).
