Hiking: Taking joy in the journey

As a young man, whenever I would go out hiking, my goal was to get to the destination as quickly as possible. There was always some sound reasoning for that--either the destination was a lake, and there was good fishing to be had, or the destination was a mountain peak and I was expecting a magnificent view. But the third reason, pride, was no real reason for my rush to the end of the trail.
The thing I've learned over the years is that there are still times to get up, hurry, and make it to the lake before the good fishing is done. On the other hand, planning ahead, hiking in the night before, and being at the lake when the good fishing begins, is a much better plan. I can still make it to the top of the peak, even if I take time to enjoy the views along the way.
Nowadays, I hike much slower. It's why I don't join various hiking groups who state such things in their "you can join..if" statements as, "you must be able to hike at least four miles per hour", or something like that. Yes, when I'm at my peak, physically, I can keep up with those kinds of hikers. But is is worth it to me? No it is not. Because hiking, to me, is exploring. It is taking the side trails a little ways, or studying animal tracks, looking at cavities in rocks, and finding mushrooms. It is sitting and picnicking and talking with your friends. That's all part of it for me. And planning to come back to a place that's real exciting some day, is also something I do.
Because at the end of the hike, I want to say, I have no regrets. I want to say that I'm not sorry I took the time to do those extra things, because those extra things are part of an adventurous life. So is racing to the top, by the way, but you miss so much along the way. And that is what I mean by regrets. There are things I have done along the trail that if I was racing to the top, never would have happened. And that, would have been something to regret.

Yours truly near the Deseret Peak Trail.

On past mistakes

"Of all sad words of tongue or pen, the saddest are these: 'It might have been'. Thus spoke John Greenleaf Whittier some of the wisest words ever uttered. And yet, it never pays to dwell on things we might have done differently long ago. The choices we make, affect the rest of our lives, but that doesn't mean we should spend a great deal of time trying the old "I wish I would have" game. One of my favorite quotes from one of my favorite films (and books) The Fellowship of the Ring is this:

Frodo: I wish the ring had never come to me. I wish none of this had happened.
Gandalf: So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given to us. There are other forces at work in this world Frodo, besides the will of evil. Bilbo was meant to find the Ring. In which case, you were also meant to have it. And that is an encouraging thought.

Perhaps those choices that we thought were mistakes were actually necessary for our own development of character. Perhaps those choices needed to happen for some reason. Wishing for a past that never happened can only lead to depression.

At any rate, there isn't anything we can do about our past mistakes other than looking forward with hope, striving to do better, and losing ourselves in the service of others. We can't change the past, but we can certainly anticipate a bright future.