No Maps, Just Naps

When traveling in a manner where you are the pilot, it is generally helpful to know where you're going. But what if already knew where you were going, you just needed to practice finding the way?

The conversation around travel by plane and car and how rapid and disconnected they are has come up a lot recently. I meet so many folks who feel completely helpless in their options to move without a petroleum based option.

The squad and I have coined the term "slow travel" in hopes of engendering a radically different culture around traveling. Moving slowly has undeniable virtues over rapid movement. It allows for so much more flexibility and openness,, giving you the freedom to stop and take it just what's in that very moment. But this is well known and hopefully obvious at this point.

What I'm getting towards requires a little more of an open mind to grasp. The map, a tool of so many intrepid explorers before me, a simple piece of paper that holds mountains of information. This is the go to when you're trying to plan a trip of any sort. You map a course and proceed to follow it with diligence.

Yet, is it possible to travel without a map and still get to where you need to go? What happens if you take a wrong turn? What happens if you push your bike hours down an arroyo only to realize you need to turn around? What happens if you get lost? Well, what happens?

The answer for me thus far has been to stop, find shade, hydrate, eat a snack and take a nap. When i wake from my peaceful slumber I will still be lost, but at the very least I will be rested and ready to double back and find another way.

I'll find my way eventually, and perhaps some light will be lost in the quest, if you're worried about counting hours, but if you can shift your perspective and see that being lost is just a perception then those hours won't be lost in the end.

I'm not advising to throw away your maps, or even hint that maps are a bad thing. They're cool and fun as heck to look at, but what I am advocating is to get lost and allow yourself to work through the process of getting lost. It's possible you might come to the conclusion that you're exactly where you should be. Stay wild, get woke, slow down.