Across the loneliest stretch of U.S. highway 40, which runs across the north strip of Colorado and Utah you see in the mid-heat of the summer months those bedraggled men and women who get it in their nutty brains to transect the continental United States from coast to coast. They festoon their bikes and packs with flags, ribbons and banners proclaiming their crazed goals, but I would rather course my route across the United States in the wilderness. And surprisingly there is much wilderness still to be had in this part of the world. Why they choose the asphalt strip of highway, I’ll never understand.

This last weekend I loaded up my pack, and with my ten year old daughter picked two points in the wilderness, and we ventured out into the wide world to see what wonders lay between them. It had been some time since I had carried everything on my back, and having a young inexperienced offspring, I committed the common sin of backpacking, and tossed onto my back more than I really needed. Extra day of food, lots of snacks, cook stove, rain gear, extra clothes, a big tent. All of it loaded onto my back. The trick is to be light, and when you have hiked 3 miles, the weight bears you down slowly, and by then by mile 5, it is too late to drop your load. Caching is always an opinion, but you march on, with the pack biting your shoulder, and your legs growing stiff.  I find that the first couple days in the wilderness are as terrifying as the first couple days in a large strange city. You feel overwhelmed by the vastness of it. God, I could die here and no one would ever find my bones. But after you accommodate to the vastness of the wilderness, you realize that it is foolish. The wilderness is our true home, our true place within nature. The constructed fabrications of cities, electronic machines that dictate our lives are but an iron cage to our soul. We have domesticated ourselves, and the true demonstration of one’s cunning is surviving, and thriving in the wilderness.

My daughter and I somewhere between two points.

It is easy to do, and when we spend the time out in the world, a relaxing realization comes upon your heart that life is but a fleeting moment. Why don’t we spend more of it exploring and enjoying our world? We fret over work obligations, unanswered emails, earning enough money, and pleasing everyone that we forget the simple things— the true things in life. It is good to escape into the wilderness. Next time you find yourself out, take the long path home. Pick two points in the middle of nowhere and learn what exists between the points. You many just discover a treasure of your own.