Snoqualmie Pass is part of The Pacific Crest Trail & Great Western Loop. Photo: Ryan Stone
Many people everyday embark on a trail walk. A walk that could last a few hours and miles or a few months and thousands of miles. Usually following a single path that takes you through the land, usually having a starting and finishing point. The longest trial in the UK is the South West Coastal path which is 630 miles, starting at Minehead and finishing in Poole Harbour. However, that is rather small compared to some of the great walks that are also out there. The Trans Canada, or Great Canada is a 16,777 mile trek that is made up from a number of long distance paths, green lanes and multi use ways. One of the most famous in America is the Pacific Crest Trail which starts at the border of Mexico and follows the West Coast of America and finishes at the Border of Canada.
A pilgrimage walk can mean something different to everyone on the trail. A means to reconnect with nature, a religious rite of passage, or simply an active way to spend time with friends. What’s clear is that in many instances, it is not so much the destination that is the ultimate goal, but the sheer pleasure of being on the journey itself. On the Camino de Santiago through Spain and parts of Europe you pass through many historic communities that add a soulful quality. On the Pilgrims’ Way in Southeast England the landscapes have an old-world pastoral quality that lifts the spirits, and in Japan, walks such as the Nakasendo Trail and the Shikoku Pilgrimage offer the chance to experience the warmth of Japanese hospitality at traditional ryokans, and sink into a relaxing onsen after a long day on the hoof. (https://www.responsibletravel.com/holidays/pilgrimage-walks/travel-guide/our-top-5)
WHAT IS HIKING?
“Hiking is an outdoor activity, which involves walking in a natural environment.”
(This definition of hiking sounds so prosaically, don’t you think? I suppose that there are no words good enough to describe hiking and the feeling behind it, but I will use one more definition, just to be professional.)
Hiking is popular all over the world, as a hobby for sport enthusiasts. This outdoor activity, enjoying the fresh air and mountains is a part of mountaineering, which consists of walking, trekking, and climbing mountains. Apart from bringing many health benefits, hiking is also an excellent way of recreation. There is no better season than autumn for enjoying the mountains. If you are a hiking lover, you’ve probably asked yourself how it all began. Who were the first hikers, when did hiking become pleasure, which were one of the first conquered peaks….
An excellent way of recreation
Mountaineering is a very broad term because it is not limited with rules or ideologies. It is an integral part of physical education, but not a sport because there is no competitive element. Mountaineering increases and extends knowledge, physical ability, resourcefulness, adaptability and the ability to live in the collective.
Where did this outdoor activity originate?
One could say that hiking as an outdoor activity was developed during the Stone Age, about half a million years ago. Just about when mankind learned how to stand upright and walk. Hiking and walking – once a means of hunting and surviving and today – fun and recreation. It is pretty hard to say when exactly that happened.
There is of course something which can be categorized as the next level in hiking. That are accomplishments such as the first ascents on mountains like K2, McKinley, and Everest.
Hiking history
Here are some of those Mountaineering milestones:
1874 – Grove, Gardiner, Walker, Sottajev and Knubel reached the summit of the highest mountain in Europe: Elbrus
1913 – Karstens, Harper, Tatum and Stuck reached the summit of the highest mountain in N. America: Mt. McKinley
1953 – Norgay and Hillary reached the summit of the highest mountain in the world: Mount Everest
1985 – Dick Bass reached Mount Everest and became the first person to reach the summits of the highest peaks of each of the seven continents.
No one knows the exact year that marked the beginning of hiking. It is possible that the Iceman climbed the Alps about 5000 years ago. If we need an evidence for the beginning of hiking, then, the first recorded trek was that of the Roman Emperor Hadrian to Etna in 125. There were a few expeditions to various mountains during the thirteenth century. Between the 1400s and 1500s, many people of the Inca Empire trod to the Andes for religious reasons.
„They are believed to have climbed the Llullaillaco peak, which is at a height of 6,379 meters. Perhaps, they also accomplished the feat of climbing Aconcagua, the highest peak of the Andes. “
(Buzzle http://www.buzzle.com/articles/history-of-hiking.html)
Important mountain expeditions
No major expeditions took place in the seventeenth century. An ascent to the snow mountain Titus was recorded in 1744. A number of important mountain expeditions took place in the later years. It can be said that some of them are key events on the timeline of hiking.
1874 – A team of mountaineers reached Elbrus, the highest mountain in Europe
1882 – W.S. Green climbed the Southern Alps of New Zealand
1897 – The highest peak of the Andes is recorded to have been climbed
1898 – The Grand Teton of the Rocky Mountains of North America was ascended
1913 – Mount McKinley was climbed
1953 – Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay reached the summit of Mount Everest. That is one of the most important events in the history of mountaineering. It was on May 29th
A couple of expeditions to the Himalayas took place in the nineteenth century. Gurkha sepoys trained in mountaineering activities were of great help in the exploration of the Asiatic mountains.
Walking in the countryside
Well, according to many articles about hiking, the idea of taking a walk in the countryside for pleasure developed in the 18th-century, and appeared because of changing attitudes to the landscape and nature, associated with the Romantic Movement. Isn’t it a good thing to live in our century? We can enjoy fresh mountain air and not be labelled as poor. On the contrary, there is no higher power and fortune than the one you gain by walking through the nature. But hey, that’s just my humble opinion. I just hope there are many of you out there who think the same. On the other hand, nowadays, hiking is a multi-billion dollar industry with millions worldwide going hiking every year.
Sources & Internet sites:
Dr.Željko Poljak: “Hrvatske planine“ , Golden marketing-Tehnička knjiga, Zagreb, 2007.
by Kristina
The Way
by Brendon McCullin
For millennia, a pilgrimage has been a way for believers to show their faith. While the pilgrimage has remained a main tenant of some religions — such as the Islamic Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca — for most Christian sects the practice seems as dated as Chaucer‘s 14th Century collection of stories about English pilgrims, The Canterbury Tales. Yet some still take up the physical and mental challenge of walking in centuries-old footsteps to religious destinations throughout the world. It is those modern seekers that Emilio Estevez used as the foundation for his 2010 offering The Way.
In the film, Estevez’s father, Martin Sheen, plays a grieving parent whose son has died in the Pyrenees while walking the Camino de Santiago (The Way of St. James) to Santiago de Compostela in Spain. Sheen’s Thomas Avery decides to make the trek to the cathedral’s shrine of St. James with his son’s ashes in tow, in order to complete what his offspring began. Along the path, he is joined by others making the journey for their own reasons, including an abused wife (Deborah Kara Unger) and an Irish writer (James Nesbitt) trying to get past a case of writer’s block. The father is also occasionally visited by visions of his lost son, played by Estevez.
In the Middle Ages, the pilgrimage to the shrine of St. James the Apostle was viewed as a way to set one’s life on a pious path that would lead to eternal salvation. Pilgrims walking to Santiago de Compostela were provided special protection under the law and churches along the way would cater to the travelers, both physically and spiritually. In very real terms, the journey was the heart of the process towards self-enlightenment, with the opportunity to pray in front of the relics of St. James the spiritual payoff at the end.
Sheen, who was raised Catholic, walked part of the Camino in 1993, well before his son’s film project began. Modern pilgrims, however, aren’t always interested in the religious aspects of the task. Like marathon runners, some take on the challenge strictly from the physical standpoint of walking a long trail over the course of a number of days. In The Way, one of the characters who joins Sheen’s spontaneous group is an overweight German man (Yorick van Wageningen) who just wants to lose weight.
Unlike Chaucer’s satirical take, the undertaking for most modern travelers is entirely earnest. Whether intended or not, walking a great distance in arduous conditions provides ample time for self-reflection. Estevez’s film initially capitalizes on the differences in his characters — who would not otherwise associate with each other — as a means to showcase their common humanity. Whether it’s a group of college students traversing the Spanish landscape for a class or a believer looking for a more profound connection to their religion, every person who takes on the pilgrimage comes away with something intensely personal to carry forward.
“I just wanted to make an honest film,” Estevez told Christianity Today in a 2011 interview. “If you’re a person of faith, you’ll find something in this movie that speaks to you. If you’re not, you’ll find something of interest too. But what I love about the Camino is that the road is a metaphor for our lives: Are we walking in truth? Are we walking with integrity? That’s what speaks the loudest to me in this film.”
https://medium.com/outtake/martin-sheen-embarks-on-a-modern-pilgrimage-in-the-way-fa5ffa8ddd42
My reflection
“The Way” is an emotive and poetic movie that shares a heart warming story with a hint of melancholy and pain felt for Tom who loses his son at the beginning of the movie. The viewer then embarks on Tom’s physical and emotional journey as he hikes across the Camino de Santiago with his son’s ashes. Without truly understanding why he feels the needs to partake in the journey, the viewer feels the connection between Tom, his son Daniel and the trail. Throughout the movie, Daniel returns to Tom in flashbacks and ghost-like appearances and their relationship seems to feel more connected the further Tom gets on his journey.
Tom meets a number of different characters along “The Way” which allows a wider understanding for the reasons why people walk the trail. Meeting people and building what comes to be a special almost spiritual relationship with people that he would most probably not affiliate himself with in his normal life. This human and diverse connection gives the viewer the feeling that they too can walk “The Way” and endure a spiritual journey that could mean or grow to mean whatever you may feel needs healing in your life.
This movie inspires me to embrace the spiritual side of walking and to embark on journeys that take time. Taking the time to connect to the space that you are in, but also to give yourself time away from day to day life that can bog you down and detach you from your spirituality. This movie adds to my inspiration to embark on a physical and visual journey that allows me the time and space to be creative while reflecting on what the land means to me. I am hoping that by spending a few days on a trail, I will feel more connected to the space that I am immersed in. While creating a visual documentary to allow my viewer to feel connect to what the land means to me.