I was drawn to hike the Appalachian Trail with my younger son, Jonathan, when he was 13 and I was perhaps 48. We overnight-backpacked across Cove Mountain toward Boiling Springs PA with stunning views of the mighty Susquehanna.
Your essay reminds me of why. The woods behind my family’s house on South Bass Island, Ohio (in my youth) was deep and magical. As a later suburbanite, I was hungry to recapture with Jon that lonely, wintery magic you so vividly describe, Vern —with a son I saw too little of.
It worked. He completed the AT as a through-hiker (2200 miles) before he graduated college. He went well beyond me: every father’s dream.
Thank you for your personal reflections on the renewing, transcendent powers of hiking in a vast, sometimes scary woodlands with your brothers.
All fathers should steer their curious sons and daughters into the mysterious back woods if they dare. Life lessons of friendship, courage, and independence abound there.
What a lovely essay! A tribute to resilience and the eternal promise of eternal life. The imagery and the feelings are so vivid. Thank you for sharing.
I was drawn to hike the Appalachian Trail with my younger son, Jonathan, when he was 13 and I was perhaps 48. We overnight-backpacked across Cove Mountain toward Boiling Springs PA with stunning views of the mighty Susquehanna.
Your essay reminds me of why. The woods behind my family’s house on South Bass Island, Ohio (in my youth) was deep and magical. As a later suburbanite, I was hungry to recapture with Jon that lonely, wintery magic you so vividly describe, Vern —with a son I saw too little of.
It worked. He completed the AT as a through-hiker (2200 miles) before he graduated college. He went well beyond me: every father’s dream.
Thank you for your personal reflections on the renewing, transcendent powers of hiking in a vast, sometimes scary woodlands with your brothers.
All fathers should steer their curious sons and daughters into the mysterious back woods if they dare. Life lessons of friendship, courage, and independence abound there.
What a lovely essay! A tribute to resilience and the eternal promise of eternal life. The imagery and the feelings are so vivid. Thank you for sharing.