Rucksack Evolution

There's probably a million quotes and sayings that basically boil down to the title of this post. We know they are true, most of us have lived them, and each time we think it will be different. There's a whole cadre of #vanlifers, digital nomads, retired Class A warriors, rubber and leather tramps, dirtbags, hiker trash, and general vagabonds that have been traveling to run away from themselves rather than to find themselves (whether they admit it or not). Am I one of them? An ennui set in after my last post. This ennui quickly lead to boredom, dissatisfaction, and self loathing. The self loathing won out, as it is apt to do. And for a heartbeat, I let it. Big mistake. When self loathing wins, even for a short period, the next days (and sometimes weeks) are like a hangover as you try to find the shards of you your own mind hasn't destroyed. Hm, maybe that's just me, I don't know. I "locked" myself in my room (aka: I hid behind the curtain that ma...

I used to think roots were something you were born with. The place where you were born was where your roots were, for better or worse. In that case, I was born an outsider. I never lived where I was born. I was whisked away at a few months old to where my father's roots were. I lived there for 13 1/2 years, a cottonwood puff on the wind with nowhere to land. I didn't fit in anywhere, not where I was born, not where I was planted. Homeless in my own home. I was spirited away to a different place shortly after my 14th birthday, this time to New Mexico. It was a completely foreign place to me, although we all technically existed under the same national banner. This is when I learned that a country was not a home, just a political designation. It was easy to exist in Albuquerque because it was a land of no roots. Those whose roots withered in the desert soil were mostly gone, victims of the Spanish, the Americans, and each other. Those who came later were mostly rootless ...

A time comes in everybody's life, or at least it should, when they seriously question everything that came before. This isn't that time. That time was like two years ago. Now is the time for doing. It's time for a personal manifesto. A Dirtbag Hiker's Manifesto The American Dream doesn't come in a single apple pie-flavored variety. Oh hell no! It's okay, nay, it's more than okay, to prefer something different. Perhaps something a bit more messier with a bit more grit. A bit of bitter, even, to make those sweet moments even sweeter. It's not purely an American Dream, either, but a human dream -- one which we are obligated to pursue if we are lucky enough to be born somewhere with the possibility. Let's embrace it, instead of fighting it. In doing so, we embrace our true selves. 1) I will walk softly on this earth. This means: Eating a primarily plant-based diet and maintaining my own body. Minimizing use of single-use plastics and pl...