A Common Link Between Hiking and Recovering From Medications

[FeralCatman]

Years ago, when I started hiking I had many new skills to learn. I hike alone so needed to account for that for safety. It was a bit overwhelming as I had to learn about proper clothing, proper gear, survival, first aid, proper footwear, etc. and had to test everything out one by one. One of the main rules of hiking is to never expect to be rescued, always be prepared to rescue yourself. This is something that I apply to my everyday life. It was confusing and a bit daunting but I loved being out on the trail so I kept up with it. Then I started winter hiking. Again alone. This took a whole new set of skills and testing to get to the point at which I could do it safely and not end up being a news story. My last goal was to hike at night. Again alone. This involved an entirely different set of skills since you must use more of your other senses beyond eyesight to deal with that environment. Sounds become magnified at night so I had to learn what they all were and learn the difference between what was a potential threat and what was benign. It required mastering anxiety and fear of the unknown. In the end I learned to enjoy a hike day or night no matter the weather or time of year.

Early in my night winter hiking learning curve I discovered what dew point temperature really means. It was late and dark and I was 2 miles out on the trail with 5 more miles to go. It had been warm that day and there had been a lot of melting and it was very humid. As I went along the temperature was dropping quickly. My shell garments had become damp. As the temperature dropped it hit the dew point temperature and suddenly the atmosphere around me flashed into fog. It was very dense and my headlamp just reflected right back at me. I could not see my hand in front of my face let alone the trail. It was like suddenly having a white hood over my head with my headlamp on and without the headlamp it was like a black hood. At that point I had a choice. Let fear get a hold of me and panic and start running around bumping into trees like a pin ball, going in circles, getting lost, and ending up on the news – or – take a deep breath, count to 10, calm down, and think things through. I remembered my firefighting training and wondered if getting below the fog would help me see the trail. I got down on hands and knees and sure enough I could see the trail. The spot I usually stopped to take a break and look at the stars and have a snack was less than half a mile up the trail. There were also good places to shelter if needed. So, I crawled up the trail slowly. After about a quarter of a mile the fog started to thin out and I made it the rest of the way to my resting point and within another half hour the fog was gone, the stars came out, and I enjoyed the rest of the hike that night having learned another valuable lesson. Check humidity, temperature range, and dew point before going out at night like that.

In thinking about this the other day, I realized it is analogous to Tapering, Withdrawal, and PAWS. The process is the same. It is learning new skills and overcoming fear of the unknown. Stick with it and in the end the stars come out and you can get back to enjoying life.