4/29/26 Entry #7 Assigned Reading

 Redick, Kip. American Camino: Walking as Spiritual Practice on the Appalachian Trail. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2023. 


The concept of ‘Leave No trace” is an ethical approach to preserving natural spaces, designed to minimize the human impact of our adventures into the wilderness. I didn’t do any camping when I was a kid but I did wander in the woods near my house in an effort to escape boredom. I was always surprised at how out of place a red soda can looked in the middle of a forest. Even at a young age, it somehow dissolved the illusion of my epic adventure. So I can see the importance of not leaving anything behind when we partake in the exploration of the wild. With the amount of traffic that trails and parks get annually, I would hate to see what these places looked like if this ethic wasn’t a norm. My only experience with this collective level of environmental neglect came from my first deployment to Iraq. In 2004, the country had been devastated by the collapse of their infrastructure and traditional cultural roles, this left many without power, medical care, gasoline for cars, and trash services. It was eye-opening to see what happens when society turns a blind eye to the accumulation of trash. It piled up in the gutters, in street corners, and anywhere the wind could deposit it. To say the least, it was aesthetically displeasing and made the negative aspect of consumerism all too clear. 

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