It's not camping, it's living.

I have read many books and articles on bushcraft, hiking and wilderness survival, all in an effort to learn the art of smoothing it in the woods. However, the most influential book I ever read was a book not about camping, but about life itself. That book was Henry David Thoreau’s Walden; or Life In The Woods.

Reading Walden allowed me to see that all the moments in life are a part of the inseparable whole. Thus if I ever wished to achieve simplicity on the trail I must achieve simplicity in my whole life. I must train into my self a new minimalist mindset. I must live my own experiment, and thus see whether I can make a fact of imagination, a fact of reality.

In Walden Thoreau, uses a dense and nuanced style of prose to reveal to all mankind that we have lost our way, that we have become the objects of our objects and the tools of our tools. We shackle ourselves to farms, to houses, to cars, we wear a harness and drag our possessions around for our sorry existence.

This made me stop and think, why do I enjoy being on the trail? answer, freedom! There is no freer a man than one with all he needs on his back and an open trail to his face. A well-selected kit adds to your freedom, it does not subtract. A pack that hurts you to carry is surely full of unnecessary articles.

Nature is our salvation, so get out there and find some peace.