There is an intense but simple thrill in setting off in the morning on a mountain trail, knowing that everything you need is on your back. It is a confidence in having left the inessentials behind and of entering a world of natural beauty that has not been violated, where money has no value, and possessions are a dead weight. The person with the fewest possessions is the freest. Thoreau was right.

The Happy Isles of Oceania: Paddling the Pacific (ed. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2006) - ISBN: 9780547525181