“How far have you hiked today?”

About thirty miles.

“Seriously?”

Yes.

“Why don’t you stop and smell the roses?”

I chuckle every time I hear this line. Do the people asking the question actually think about what they are saying? Do they honestly believe that just because some people cover more distance than they do, it stands to reason that they can’t be enjoying themselves?

A Rose by any other Name

Just for kicks and giggles let me throw out a couple of alternative explanations.

As unlikely as it may seem to the questioner, could it be that the person they are advising to smell the roses, hikes more miles because they are fitter and/or more experienced and/or carrying a lighter pack than they are?

“Nah, nah, that can’t have anything to do with it.”

Ok, try this one out for size. Could it be that the questionee hikes more miles because s/he loves to be walking at both dawn and dusk, when the animals are out, the light is at its best, and there is an energy in the atmosphere that you won’t find at any other time of day? In other words, the said hiker simply enjoys spending more time walking than in camp?

“Come on, man, enough with these cockamamie theories.”

The Irony

More often than not, hikers that tell others to “stop and smell the roses” are the same ones that are sleeping in while the rest of nature is waking up. When the birds are singing and the first light of dawn comes streaming through the trees, they are generally still catching Z’s below a roof of nylon, while I am out walking beneath a much more agreeable (at least from my perspective) ceiling of emerging blue.

At days end when the sun’s descending, wildlife reemerging and the sky is turning fifty shades of crimson orange, “Team Smell the Roses” has usually long since set up camp and called it good. My preference is to still be hiking. Not because I’m trying to make more miles, but instead because it makes me feel like I’m more a part of the daily miracle that is unfolding all around me.

Let it Be

Appreciation of the natural world has little to do with how fast or long you walk, and everything to do with how open you are to taking on board Mother Nature’s lessons.

There is such a wide range of motivations, experience and fitness levels in the backpacking community, that suggesting to another hiker that they are not taking the time to enjoy their surroundings makes no sense. Indeed, when you consider that the people doling out the unsolicited advice don’t usually know the person they are addressing from a bar of soap, it seems even crazier.

“Why don’t you stop and smell the roses?”

I have an alternative idea; how about everyone just hike and backpack in the manner of their own choosing, and let other folks do the same.