Lost in Technology

Last week my dearest friend’s 94 year old father passed away. It was not unexpected and in some ways a blessing as he had not been able to enjoy life for some time now. After days of her dealing with arrangements and details. I thought a restorative hike in the woods was in order. 

In our younger days we would go backpacking for days, deep into the mountains. Trail markers were sometimes helpful but were often missing or obscured by vegetation. Sometimes trails would be obliterated by storm damage or by beavers blocking streams which created new ponds where the trails ought to be. Our only navigation was a USGS topo map and a compass. Using our talents and powers of deduction we always managed to find our way to our destination and find our way back out again. 

However, this was only to be a day trip and we didn’t give it much thought. Being painfully out of shape, we googled “easy hikes” in the Adirondacks and choose one listed about an hour away. We threw some water, bug juice and a few snacks into a day pack and off we went. We drove about 50 minutes, got off the correct highway exit and quickly stopped for a bathroom break. Then we turned on Waze to lead us to the trail head. But Waze was saying we were still an hour away when we thought we should be pretty close. A little confused about the discrepancy we still followed it’s directions until we were on a dirt road. The road quickly became more of a rutted path which dead ended and we were now so remote we lost the Waze connection. 

“Do you have a map?” I asked. Nope. Great. Seriously, who goes hiking into a giant forest without a map?

I am amazed at how much I have ceded all my trust to my phone and the technology in it. Maps, Google assistant, phone numbers, banking, grocery lists. For all the information it makes available to me, I swear it is making me dumber. 

Anyway, we got out of the car to walk around and see if we could get any internet signal. No. But in that silence we did hear the sound of rushing water, decided to investigate and came upon this, reaffirming the notion that all who wander are not lost. 

Okay, we were lost in the sense that we had no idea where we were, but we were leaving M&Ms along the way to help guide us back to the car so we were pretty sure we could get out.

We decided to explore a little knowing that if we could hear the waterfall, we weren’t too far from where we parked. We spent our time picking our way along the stream bed, occasionally leaving more M&Ms when we strayed, until we ran out of trail mix and decided we wanted a real meal. 

We were tired, sore and hungry but the time out forest bathing was extremely calming and soul healing.

Following the sound of the water we got back to the car, turned around and picked our way back out to civilization.  As soon as we were able to get a signal I googled “restaurants near me”. 

Sometimes I think my phone is trying to kill me as it steals so much of my attention and drains my soul and my memory banks. But sometimes it finds an incredible restaurant in the middle of nowhere for two weary hikers to rest and rejuvenate. 

Feeling quite accomplished for the day I consulted my FitBit. It told me we had "hiked" less than a mile in the three hours in were in the woods. Less than 1 mile?  I hate technology.