Long distance hiking is not a vacation, it's too long for that. It's not recreation, too much toil and pain involved. It is, we decide, a way of life, a very simplified Spartan way of living... life on the move... heavy packs, sweating brow; they make you appreciate warm sunshine, companionship, cool water. The best way to appreciate these things that are precious and important in life it is take them away.

Journey on the Crest: Walking 2,600 Miles from Mexico to Canada (ed. Mountaineers Books, 1987)