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Why Everyone Needs to go Get Lost in the Mountains

Put your phone away and learn how to calm the fuck down.

By: 4d3d4f18d5c8bd34dd63b369497d531d + Save to a List

1.       It will make you freak the freak out

a.       That fear bubbling out of your stomach? The rising panic and thoughts of “how much food do I have left?” and “A person can only live without water for 3 days…”. As the sun starts to go down and the animals start to get a little more vibrant you start to question why the hell you were so damn adventurous in the first place. Your car is a safe place. Your house is a safe place. You should have stayed there! You know better!

2.       It will force you to calm the freak down

a.       After all of these irrational thoughts start to work themselves out, your brain switches over to “Stop being so dang dramatic and start doing something about this so you don’t become Mr. Mountain Lion’s dinner.” An odd calm washes over you and even the most excitable of folks can become eerily focused and task-oriented in these moments. Nature is pretty dang cool when it comes to survival. Evolution has wired in us responses that overcome and allow for razor focus.

3.       It forces you re-center and problem solve

a.       Here’s that razor focus. Once you come down from your fear induced freak-sesh you begin to take in your surrounding in a less “everything out here is perfect cover for the Grizzly family” and more “have I seen this before and where the heck are the trail blazes?”

4.       You learn you’re stronger than you give yourself credit for

a.       Boo-ya survival instincts. Honestly we use them a lot without totally processing what’s going on. Running down a road by yourself and see a man appear from the shadowy shadows? Nope, I don’t need to see what happens there. Turning around. See someone texting and driving in front of you on the road? BYEEEEE moving three lanes over and getting niiiiiice and far away from them. Their judgment may be way off but mine doesn’t have to be. A stranger wearing way too much cologne at the bar hands you a drink? I’m ok, not actually interested in being roofied tonight. But thanks.

So this stuff happens all the time. It just feels a little different when you’re in the wilderness with daylight fading, water levels falling, food running out, and no. freaking. clue. where the last blaze was.

5.       You have some dang awesome views to love on for even longer than you planned

a.       Some people may not reach this point but others will. All about perspective I assume. But when you’re in your office on Monday morning recounting your weekend excursion you’ll probably have the face of those mountains plastered across your brain to block out the cream-of-oat colored walls and time warp computer screen that are your current view. So while you’re out there for a bit longer soak it up. You’ll love yourself for it later.

6.       You appreciate those memories even more

a.       There are some runs that I’ve gone on that have been perfectly uneventful—beautiful, but nothing to write home about. Sometimes my mind wanders to those places. But mostly it’s the adventures that have been a little bit more anxiety inducing that paint vividly across my brain. I smell the mountain air. I see individual leaves and pine needles. I remember where I stopped to pee. This is, after all, the reasons we do anything—to keep adding small coins to our “alive” jar, forcing ourselves to experience more than just our own four walls.

We want to acknowledge and thank the past, present, and future generations of all Native Nations and Indigenous Peoples whose ancestral lands we travel, explore, and play on. Always practice Leave No Trace ethics on your adventures and follow local regulations. Please explore responsibly!

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