I started a thru-hike in 2008 and finished in 2024. The changes that have happened in the culture of the trail are drastic. Back in 2008, there were some cell phones but they were few are far inbetween.
Now the technology dictates our hikes. We can take back the autonomy of the hike by leading rather than following.
There is a sense of unknowing and mystery when you are out on the trail for an extended period and that mystery is slowly being chipped away by technology. How can you get lost when a blue dot is always telling you where you are?
I just feel like there must have been a time when the world had more. You know? Like… mystery or… or something, and now you come somewhere like this and it’s beautiful and you take a picture, and then you realize that everybody’s taken that exact same picture from that exact same spot. You just made some redundant content, for stupid Instagram.
Portia White Lotus Season 2
And you can’t even get lost anymore ’cause you can just find yourself on Google Maps.
The Colorado Trail is there for us not to bring our city and technological lives into the woods but for us to remember what those lives were like and bring a bit of that serenity back into our online and working lives.
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