There are all sorts of reasons for going on a long walk. Sometimes the reason is simple. You know the old saying, “Some people look at a trailhead and path and ask ‘Why?’ I look at the same and ask ‘Why not?'”

At other times the reason is more complicated. As in heading off on a pilgrimage. Remember watching that excellent movie “The Way” starring Martin Sheen and his son Emilio Estevez, and directed by Estevez? (If you haven’t seen it yet, go find a copy and watch it soon.) The film depicts an international group of pilgrims on the Camino de Santiago in northern Spain. When I first saw it I was struck by the many similarities to the Appalachian Trail hiking experience.

And now, because of a 3 January 2015 Salon article I saw this morning before church, I mentally link the AT and the Camino with other pilgrimages around the world. The article by Joanna Rothkopf is titled “You have to go on a journey“.  Interviewing Bruce Feiler about the 6 pilgrimages he made during a year of filming the same, she elicits a lot of good commentary from Feiler. Just for example:

“I think in terms of the people who go on them, there’s a tremendous number of similarities. I would say, first of all, they are all in times of transition in their lives. … Another similarity is these pilgrimages are very difficult. The travel is hard, the food is not great, the accommodations are not wonderful and yet somehow the idea of persevering and prevailing over those difficulties becomes one of the most satisfying parts of the whole experience. … And I would say sort of a final similarity is that they are very communal. Often people go for very personal reasons but along the way they build up this community of the seeker and I think in that people find a lot of comfort and intimacy.”

Really, that could all be said about Appalachian Trail hiking. Thru-hiking the AT is a grand secular pilgrimage for a lot of people. It’s a spiritual pilgrimage for others. And for biblical Christians [and probably others] it can even be a religious pilgrimage. Or so I believe.