As you read this, I will be hiking into the backcountry of the Adirondacks in New York, about 50 miles west of Burlington, Vermont.
Last week, when I took my camping supplies down from the attic, Kaya started hovering as if to say, Don’t leave me behind!” She seemed relieved when it was finally time for her to get into my rented Jeep on Saturday morning.
Anticipation can be a luscious thing. Yet for her I think it was laced with canine anxiety. But now we are backpacking buddies, man and dog. All is well.
I love my annual wilderness quest, time to enter solitude (with one exception, Kaya). I will clear the infinite to-do list from my mind and allow myself to be nurtured and changed by nature’s bounty.
“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.”
– John Muir
