Backpacking Kearsage pass + lakes with Loki in June. Loki and I have been backpacking together every summer since 2018. It’s something we look forward to every year. For me it’s similar to a meditation retreat. I get the opportunity to completely disconnect from technology and responsibilities, and after a strenuous hike in, get to enjoy the absolutely insane beauty of the sierra nevadas. Every time I disconnect in this way, I get exactly what my mind needs. To me, spending time in nature in this way is potent and necessary for the human spirit. I have no other way to describe it. I’ve had people tell me they don’t know if they could do it, spend a night or two in the wilderness alone with just a dog. To me, as granola as it sounds, I don’t know how we can do without it. It feels like the most fundamentally human thing to do, to just be outside in awe of nature. It is so easy to over complicate life, to live in constant pursuit of the next thing that will make us happy, to lose sight...