After the completion of a journey of any kind, from a five month hike to completing a career (professional or sport), we might find ourselves in a crisis of consciousness. Our lives lack purpose more than ever before. How do we get purpose when we’ve lost it, or never had it to begin with? When I am thru-hiking I rarely lack purpose, but when I am off trail my purpose is often a little harder to locate, making life seem as though it is somewhat lacking.
While hiking the Pacific Crest Trail in 2019, my purpose was quite simple – put one foot in front of the other to reach a campsite at the end of each day, with an overarching goal of walking across the country from Canada to Mexico. Each day was simple, but there was always purpose.
On a sunny day in Oregon while hiking the PCT…
“My feet feel like I tried walking barefoot like a hobbit all day. I was on trail late at 8:10am and the day began with plenty of uphill. The lava rocks and snow couldn’t decide who was in charge, with some burned forest getting involved here and there. The plus side was that there were no mosquitoes for a change. The views were insanely gorgeous all day of the North and Middle Sister, Mount Washington, and Mount Jefferson.
I went the wrong way at a road junction to get to a pit toilet, then even further in the wrong direction on the road before walking back up the hill to where I started. The destination was an observatory with two toilets (with TP!) and two trash cans. No big deal. I emptied my trash, ate the rest of my snacks, and chatted with two hikers I’d been leapfrogging all morning. They were pleasant enough, though rather quiet to anyone but each other. She gave me the rest of her granola, which I gladly took off her hands and quickly devoured as though I hadn’t eaten in days.”
Another day proved just as simple, yet with a constant goal to reach.
“I arrived at the small campsite on the top of the hill at 5:15pm, and quickly set up after making sure the trees looked steady enough not to fall on me in the middle of the night. It was brisk enough to keep the mozzies at bay for the evening, which was a refreshing change of pace for Oregon. After setting up on the soft ground among patches of snow, I did some yoga poses for 15 minutes outside my tent to feel less like a Disney witch.
After feeling slightly more human, I started my nightly process: pull everything out of my pack, put whatever I need for the night (sleeping pad, quilt, clothes, etc) to the side, food and everything else on the other side, cook dinner, eat, put all food and smellys in my bear bag, journal, brush teeth, wash/wipe off, put toiletries bag in pack with dinner stuff, look at mileage/comments for the following day, and stretch.”
For Pacific Crest Trail thru-hikers, motivations and the feeling of purpose was omnipresent, though it looked different for each individual.
“I’m someone who is really focused on one objective or goal, and that is reaching Canada. I split it up in smaller goals from resupply to resupply, but my motivation of having fun and seeing the cool stuff the PCT has to offer. There’s always something different to see on the trail and ways to have fun. I don’t think the motivation seems as strong as other people’s motivations, but I’m so set on reaching Canada and finishing the trail that it works out well for me to finish this,” said a 24-year-old male.
“Getting to town was huge and recovering for 1-2 days. Just making progress and staying true to my word that I’m hiking this trail. Self pressure,” admitted one female hiker.
“After a week my voice had changed and I felt better and what kept me going was just being out there. I loved WA. Also I’m really curious and I have to see everything. I wanted to get to the next day because it’s unknown and I love going into the unknown. I met someone who I hiked all of WA with and having that companionship was really helpful. At the end of WA it got hard because she got off trail and her negative mentality was rubbing off on me but I pushed through it. I knew talking to her that this is still where I needed to be. I made a pact to myself that I’d be here til I didn’t need to be. I didn’t miss anything or have anywhere else to go. Just believing in myself that it was the right choice to stay here,” one hiker says confidently.
“Wanting to see what was next around every bend. I’ve never hiked in a desert so the cactus and the ecosystem was new like Disneyland. It was hard, though, and I was doing 11-12 miles a day in the beginning and was wondering when I would get my trail legs. But what motivated me was that we were doing this together, so there was accountability of doing it with someone else. But everything was so cool; the bugs, sunsets, everything was so new and stimulating,” a 27-year old hiker says excitedly.
A male hiker talked about his internal compass; “See if I could do this. That’s a hard time for most beginner hikers, so just trying to get my feet on the trail and get moving and see if it was something I could do or wanted to do.”
Each hiker clearly had varying motivations and found purpose in different aspects, but almost all of them recognized the benefits of breaking things down day by day so as not to be overwhelmed. Whether on or off trail, I find purpose from an array of things – making soap, fostering my relationships, planning small hikes and dialing in on my nutrition and workouts. My purpose doesn’t have to be something large, like walking across the country, but can be simply significant in its own right.
The important thing is to have interests and goals in order to have and work towards a purpose. We can derive purpose from just about any goal, especially when we notice that it pushes us outside our comfort zone or allows us to build [new] skills in that area. Even if our interests or goals seem small, none are insignificant and can always provide purpose – it may just be a little harder to find at first.
