Taking it to the Trails

"Thousands of tired, nerve shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out going to the mountains is going home, that wilderness is a necessity..." -John Muir

In the tradition of American self-reliance-that urge to eschew social conventions for a simpler life, most refugees have headed for wilderness. Henry David Thoreau went to Walden Pond, John Muir to Yosemite. We, as Phoenicians in the summer, head for the Mogollom Rim. As former city slickers, type A workaholics and corporate brats, we have found that the act of setting ones foot down on a path through natural areas provides unparalled opportunities to build the human spirit. Hiking is nature's Zoloft. You get a sense that your part of that bigger something. The meaning of life becomes tangible on a trail in ways it will never be while walking down Main Street, (or heaven forbid, through the mall.) Undeniably, there is One True Creator.