Post #1924236

"What a thing it is to sit absolutely alone, in the forest, at night, cherished by this wonderful, unintelligible, perfectly innocent speech, the most comforting speech in the world, the talk that rain makes by itself all over the ridges, and the talk of the watercourses everywhere in the hollows!" Merton, Thomas. "Rain and the Rhinoceros." (1959) in Selected Essays. Edited with an introduction by Patrick F. O'Connell. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013, page 217. He wasn't a backpacker when he wrote this, but every backpacker knows this magical feeling when they've made wise choices along the Trail and camped alone in an isolated spot, even (especially?) if they're on a crowded trail like the Appalachian Trail.