Hikin'

Growing up in essentially the middle of nowhere helped grant me an appreciation for the outdoors. Being an average of four hour's driving from most major cities, and living in one of the least densely populated counties in the state, my world as a child consisted of stunning mountain ranges, rolling high-desert expanses, evergreen forests in the mountains to the west, and pinon groves in the mountains to the east. Granted, I did spend a lot of time watching TV as a kid since the 90s had The X-Files and a goldmine of other awesome shows, but I honestly enjoyed the times where I'd go camping and hiking with my dad. Regardless if bears were around the campsite (or if I didn't sleep well because I thought about bears around the campsite), I really liked sleeping in tents and walking around the middle of nowhere, and I carried that with me into high school and to now.

I liked TV and video games as a teenager as much as my friends did-- which was a lot. We'd sit inside all day watching anime and shooting each other in WWII games on the weekends, and we'd go to school and talk about games and anime in between watching Homestar Runner videos and doing actual schoolwork until we'd get home and watch anime and shoot each other in WWII games during the week. Some of my friends played sports, but there wasn't any athletic extracurricular I wanted to be involved with so my pasty white self continued to get pastier and whiter as I devoted time to dial up internet and basic cable. However, one day a classmate asked my friends and me, "Why do you guys just sit around in the dark all the time when there are so many things to do here?" My friends laughed it off and continued business as usual, but I took the question a little more to heart.

I started taking walks around the outskirts of town, past the tree farm and the alfalfa fields on the east side of town, beyond the park and the museum on the west side, going along washes and dirt roads until it started to get dark or I needed to do homework. Once I got a drivers license and the Jeep I started hiking actual trails, discovering places that I didn't know were a short cruise away from my TV and PlayStation. All the fantasy terrain I'd see in the game Dungeon Siege or in fantasy movies and books was pretty attainable from where I was, and I explored it as much as I could. I went so far as to ditch school to go hiking in the Sierras-- the only time I'd ever ditched school ever, mind you. Through sunburns, bug bites, bruises, and blistered feet, I played in "the backyard" and haven't really wanted to stop.

Once I graduated high school and moved away I started hiking around Red Rock Canyon, Devil's Punchbowl, and around Wrightwood since I was in the neighborhood. The same happiness that came from being outside back in Independence came around every time I'd go exploring my new home; seeing the jagged red rocks and rolling sand north of Mojave, feeling the wind flowing over the hillsides, exploring places I'd never been to before... it was neat. By the time I moved back to the Owens Valley I'd started exploring other spots in the area I hadn't really been to before, and went to places away from Inyo County too. That pointless meandering along a trail, away from the crowds and commotion of real life, in landscapes that can make a person feel small but free from worries of everyday stuff, has remained an interest of mine since I was a high school anime nerd looking for something to do while waiting for new seasons of shows to start.

Nowadays I have a desk job with a direct view of Mt. Whitney from my window. I think about all the other places in the state, country, and planet I could hike around in one day, and I wait for the weekend and for cooperative weather so I can throw on some boots and check out the places I call my backyard.

Anime and video games are still pretty freaking dope, y'know, but I kind of prefer being outside.