Portrait 37: A deep, personal change

When I was in the Mojave Desert, I ran out of food. I had shipped a box of food ahead of time but the post office lost it. I quickly grabbed a hodgepodge of gas station food on the way out. After stringent rationing for a few days, I had 800 calories for my last day and a half in the desert. The Danger Brothers picked their campsite and I opted to hike several more miles to a cabin that was on the map. I walked up to the cabin with dreams of finding a weekender who might sell me some leftover hot dogs. What I found was a group of three friends spending a weekend in the desert with their Jeeps.

They invited me to an extra chair, and I spent my night feeling like the fourth lifelong friend in the group. We had a few drinks and traded stories by the fire for hours. They fed me cheese bread, chips with salsa, breadsticks and hummus, carne asada, and more. In the morning, they called me over for a second feast, and sent me on my way with over a pound of leftover steak. When I got to the trailhead, there was another group finishing their annual motorcycle trip. Unprompted, they offered me all the leftovers in their saddlebags. When they left, they were quickly replaced by a local trail angel with more food.

One of the beautiful things about the trail is the number of genuinely kind people you meet. Another beautiful thing is learning to say yes and be receptive to that kindness. There’s a certain amount of humility and vulnerability in accepting help from total strangers. The most common phrase I hear when I interview hikers is “thru hiking has restored my faith in humanity.” I feel that thru hiking has restored my faith in myself - and with that, I can allow myself to have faith in other people too.