"[I'm so hungry I] could eat a jackass stuffed with fireworks."
anonymous (1854), Hunt's Yachting Magazine, 1854
"Everyone is an explorer. How could you possibly live your life looking at a door and not open it?"
Ballard, Robert D (1942 - )
"There are only three bad spots on a portage ... the beginning, the middle and the end."
Beymer, Robert (1949 - )
"And remember ... wherever you go ... there you are."
Buddha, Confucius … and Buckaroo Banzai
"Do not wait until the conditions are perfect to begin. Beginning makes conditions perfect."
Cohen, Alan (1950 - )
"Ah, but I was so much older then
I’m younger than that now"
Dylan, Bob (From: My Back Pages, 1964)
"Two roads diverged in a wood, and I --
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference."
Frost, Robert (From: The Road Not Taken, 1916)
"... whether you arrive at your destination or whether you reach somewhere else, or whether you never get anywhere at all, you're always busy ... and when you've done it there's always something else to do."
"... there are a hundred things one has to know. ... signs, and sayings ... and dodges and tricks you practise, all simple enough when you know them, but they've got to be known ... or you'll find yourself in trouble."
Grahame, Kenneth (From: The Wind In The Willows, 1908)
"And the black flies, the little black flies
Always the black fly, no matter where you go
I'll die with the black fly a-picking my bones"
Hemsworth, Wade (From: The Blackfly Song, 1949)
"Memories hold me till I go canoeing again ... the glowing embers of an early morning fire, the smell of autumn leaves, the wolf that stared at me while I stared back, the large bear that peered at me in my tent from the doorway, the rain that soaked me through on a long hike from camp."
Hill, Barry (From: Journal, May 2014)
"Exploring remote areas is nourishment for body and soul."
"I find it impossible to look at a map of remote areas and not dream."
Hill, Barry (From: Journal, August 2009)
"Wilderness ... sound without noise."
Hill, Barry (From: Journal, September 2009)
"I cannot help but feel I am walking with ghosts of past time adventurers. [at an old cabin site]"
Hill, Barry (From: Journal, July 2018)
"You just have to make the best of it."
Hill, Patricia (1920 - 2011), (my mother)
"Ride a wild horse
against the sky
hold tight to his wings
before you die
whatever else you leave undone —
once ride a wild horse
into the sun."
Kahn, Hannah (1911 - 1988) (From: Ride a Wild Horse)
"I gotta go somewhere
I gotta go
Wastin' time standin' here
I gotta go"
Keen, Robert Earl (From: I Gotta Go, 2011)
"Only by stopping long enough to observe our surroundings can we bring shape and meaning to our lives. This is peace. I love this peace."
Kenison, Katrina (1958 - ) (From: Make Room for Peace)
"Something hidden. Go and find it.
Go and look behind the Ranges --
Something lost behind the Ranges.
Lost and waiting for you. Go!"
Kipling, Rudyard (1865 - 1936) (From: The Explorer)
"[After a wilderness trip ...]
You're relieved, calmed, satisfied. You wonder where, if anywhere, this may lead. But feelings tend to be unresolved. You undertook the journey because the idea occurred to you, but you aren't sure why you had the idea in the first place. Afterwards, you get the idea to do another trip. That doesn't resolve anything either. But it feels like you're going in the right direction."
Kobaleko, Jerry (From: Explore Magazine, winter 2012)
"Solitude is aloneness you choose and embrace. …great things can come out of solitude, out of going to a place where all is quiet except the beating of your heart."
Laskas, Jeanne Marie (From: The Washington Post Magazine, 1998)
"Anyone who says they like portaging is either a liar or crazy, or both."
"… portaging is like hitting yourself on the head with a hammer: it feels so good when you stop."
Mason, Bill (1929 - 1988)
"... when ... Manitou, finished laying down this river, perfect in all details, He added the mosquito to remind man that no paradise comes free ..."
"... Manitou gave this river everything, ... when that was done He said 'Now I will keep man from becoming arrogant', ... and He threw in the mosquito."
Michener, James A (From: Chesapeake, 1978)
"Where am I going? I don't quite know.
Anywhere, anywhere. I don't know.
Where am I going? I don't quite know.
What does it matter where people go?
Anywhere, anywhere. I don't know."
Milne AA (From: Spring Morning, 1924)
"I love to go a-wandering
My knapsack on my back
... may I go a-wandering
Until the day I die."
Moller, Friedrich-Wilhelm (From: The Happy Wanderer, 1946)
"The sun shines not on us but in us. The rivers flow not past, but through us. Thrilling, tingling, vibrating every fiber and cell of the substance of our bodies, making them glide and sing. The trees wave and the flowers bloom in our bodies as well as our souls, and every bird song, wind song, and tremendous storm song ... in the heart of ... [wilderness] ... is our song, our very own, and sings our love."
Muir, John (1838 – 1914)
"May the road rise to meet you,
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face,
The rains fall soft ...
... until we meet again."
old Irish (Celtic, Gaelic) blessing (From: May The Road Rise Up)
"The freshness, the freedom, the farness--
O God! how I’m stuck on it all.
There's a land--oh, it beckons and beckons,
And I want to go back--and I will.
It's the great, big, broad land 'way up yonder,
It's the forests where silence has lease;
It's the beauty that thrills me with wonder,
It's the stillness that fills me with peace."
Service, Robert (From: The Spell of the Yukon, 1907)
"Oh, it was wild and weird and wan, and ever in camp o' nights
We would watch and watch the silver dance of the mystic Northern Lights.
And soft they danced from the Polar sky and swept in primrose haze;
And swift they pranced with their silver feet, and pierced with a blinding blaze.
They danced a cotillion in the sky; they were rose and silver shod;
It was not good for the eyes of man--'twas a sight for the eyes of God."
Service, Robert (From: The Ballad Of The Northern Lights, 1909)
"Light up your pipe again, old chum, and sit awhile with me;
I've got to watch the bannock bake -- how restful is the air!
(That bannock's raising nicely, pal; just jab it with your knife.)
Fine specimens of manhood they would reckon us out there.
It's the tracking and the packing and the poling in the sun;
It's the sleeping in the open, it's the rugged, unfaked food;
It's the snow-shoe and the paddle, and the campfire and the gun,
And when I think of what I was, I know that it is good.
Ah, yes, it's good! I'll bet that there's no doctor like the Wild:
(Just turn that bannock over there; it's getting nicely brown.)
(Just turn that bannock over there, that's propped against the log.)
Heigh ho! I'm tired; the bannock's cooked; it's time we both turned in.
The morning mist is coral-kissed, the morning sky is gold.
The camp-fire's a confessional -- what funny yarns we spin!"
Service, Robert (From: While The Bannock Bakes, 1912)
"All that glitters is not gold. All who wander are not lost."
Tolkien, JRR (From: The Lord of the Rings, 1954)
"Pay attention to where you are. Take care of yourself. Slow. Down."
Vuchnich, Meredith (2015)