Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Way Out There

Andrew Skurka took another long treck in the wilderness. 4,500 plus miles in Alaska. 26 miles a day. 20 plus days without seeing another human being. It is far different from hiking on the established trails. 

The last third of expedition took him into northern Yukon and the Arctic. During one stretch, Skurka traveled 657 miles over 24 days without crossing a road or seeing a human being. It was just him and his video camera. The clip he showed from that period revealed some of his deepest reflections. For Skurka, "big wilderness has a different feel to it." His surroundings were so wild, "big, open, and vast." He "could have been the last person on earth," and felt unsettled by this "new level of vulnerability and sense of self-dependence." His mentor, Roman Dial, put it into perspective: "You are not on the Appalachian trail anymore. In big wilderness, there is no such thing as comfort."[...]
You are "just another animal," and just "as vulnerable and exposed to nature as the creatures around you." There are "bigger powers at play than you could ever understand or imagine."

Wild stuff. Safe journeys Andrew.

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