The Question I’ve Been Asked

“Why do you go hiking?”

I’ve been asked this question many times. Colleagues ask, friends ask, family asks. They watch me leave the house on weekends with a big backpack and come back on Monday limping, and they find it very hard to understand.

“Wouldn’t it be better to just lie at home with that time?”

“Spending money to buy suffering?”

“Is something weighing on your mind?”

To be honest, I’ve asked myself this question too.

The Original Reason

At first, I went hiking because I wanted to lose weight.

At that time, I had just been working for two years. I worked overtime every day, ordered takeout, sat for long periods, and my weight shot up to 170 jin. Several arrows were pointing up on my health check report, and the doctor said I couldn’t keep going like this.

I wanted to exercise, but running was too boring, the gym was too expensive, and playing ball required rounding up people. Later I saw people hiking and thought this was good: it didn’t cost money, didn’t require rounding up people, and I could do it alone.

So I went.

The First Hike

My first hike was to a small local hill, less than ten kilometers.

I thought it would be very simple, so I went in sneakers. As a result, halfway through, my feet started hurting. The soles were too soft, and stepping on rocks was painfully bumpy. When I reached the summit, I was dog-tired and sat on the ground panting for half an hour.

But on the way down, I suddenly felt that this kind of tiredness was different from the tiredness of working overtime.

The tiredness of overtime is the kind that is pent up inside. The body isn’t tired, but the mind is. The tiredness of hiking is a pure kind of tiredness: legs sore, sweating, panting, but the mind is blank.

At that moment I seemed to understand why some people like hiking.

Later

Later I started walking farther.

From ten kilometers to twenty kilometers, from day hikes to multi-day backpacking traverses. My gear also became more and more specialized: from sneakers to hiking boots, from a daypack to a heavy-load backpack, from bottled water to a thermos.

My weight didn’t drop much, probably because I ate more after hiking.

But I found that what hiking gave me was much more important than losing weight.

What Hiking Taught Me

First: Focus

When hiking, you can only think about one thing: walking.

Watch your feet, where to step, how to take the next step. Your mind is filled with these simple things, with no space to think about work troubles, no space to think about the mortgage and KPIs.

This feeling of focus is too scarce in daily life. Every day we are interrupted by phones, by messages, by all kinds of things, and it is hard to truly focus on one thing. But when hiking, you have to focus.

Second: Patience

Hiking is a slow process.

You can’t get to the summit all at once; you have to walk step by step. Sometimes after walking for two hours, you look up and the summit is still in the clouds. That feeling can make you break down, but you have no choice but to keep walking.

This is very much like life. Many goals can’t be achieved all at once; you have to take your time. But modern people are too impatient. They want everything fast: quick success, getting rich quickly, losing weight quickly.

Hiking taught me that some things can’t be rushed.

Third: Acceptance

When hiking, you will encounter many unexpected things.

Weather changes, taking the wrong route, gear problems, physical discomfort. You can’t control these things. You can only accept them and then figure out how to respond.

Life is like this too. Plans can’t keep up with changes. All you can do is accept reality and then move forward.

Fourth: Simplicity

When hiking, life becomes very simple.

Walking, eating, sleeping. No complicated interpersonal relationships, no annoying work emails, no meaningless socializing. You only need to pay attention to the most basic needs: water, food, rest.

This simple feeling is addictive.

On Meaning

Someone asked me, what is the meaning of hiking?

To be honest, I don’t know.

Hiking can’t get me promoted or get me a raise, can’t buy me a house or a car, can’t make me more handsome or more charming. On the contrary, it costs me money, gets me injured, and makes me tan.

But I just like it.

I like the feeling of walking in the mountains, the feeling of standing at the summit looking at the scenery, the feeling of lying in a tent at night listening to the rain. These feelings can’t be eaten as food, but they make food taste better.

On Solitude

Hiking is mostly solitary.

Walking alone in the mountains, with no one to chat with, you can only talk to yourself. Sometimes you think about many things, sometimes you think about nothing.

I used to fear loneliness and thought that being alone would make my mind run wild. But after hiking I found that solitude isn’t so scary. On the contrary, when you are alone, you can truly face yourself.

Those problems that are usually covered up by busyness emerge in solitude. You have to face them, solve them, or accept them.

This is probably the biggest gift hiking has given me.

In Closing

Why go hiking?

I can answer this question now.

It’s not to lose weight, not to post on WeChat Moments, not to prove anything. It’s just to temporarily leave that world held hostage by phones, work, and all kinds of deadlines, and return to the simplest state of life.

Walking, eating, sleeping, looking at the scenery.

As simple as that.

Some people say hiking is escape. I don’t think so. Escape is not wanting to face things; hiking is for facing them better. After you’ve gone out and come back, those problems are still there, but the angle from which you look at them has changed.

This is the meaning of hiking.

Not escape, but recharging.

“The mountain is there, so I go.”