Somewhere in the ballpark of 190 hiked kilometers later, I’m back to civilization. Hiking Maine’s 100 Mile Wilderness and the state’s highest point Mount Katahdin, was an experience of a lifetime. It’s amazing how fast I got into “forest” mode and how slow I am at getting back into “city” mode. For that reason I just want to post an article from 3 Quarks Daily: Sunday Morning in a Northeastern Old Growth Forest. I don’t necessarily agree with everything in it (I feel like the article’s reaching a bit) but it has some good history of the forests of the Northeastern US.

Here’s an interesting thought from that article that I’m not quite sure what to make of:

Nature can be just as trying. If you are “out there” too long it can alter your state of mind by changing your perception of it. Few people can handle this. But a certain few do, and these folks might have a predisposition or a domain specificity towards nature—the circuitry of their nervous system is geared to specialize in that specific kind of reality. Scientists might be wired differently; naturalists might be wired differently; police might be, and also emergency responders, teachers, morticians, mechanics; each having the generalized social intelligence we all share, while specializing in an area that others know nothing about.

Being “out there” is definitely an experience but I’m not sure if we need to resort to all this “circuitry of the nervous system” business to explain it.

Also, here’s a video (not mine) from one of the cooler parts of the hike on Katahdin’s Knife Edge ridge: