Classic hikes with Peter Potterfield
Hiking up the aptly named Frying Pan trail in Capitol Reef National Park, southern Utah. Photo by James Martin. © 2005 Classichikes.com. All Rights Reserved.
Peter Potterfield: They’ve transformed my life. And I think that they have the ability to transform any body’s life.
That’s outdoor adventure journalist Peter Potterfield, talking about the wild places of the Earth. His book, Classic Hikes of the World, Potterfield writes, is a tool to help not only athletes, but busy families spend a few nights in the back country.
Peter Potterfield: The beautiful thing about hiking is that it can keep you healthy from age 10 to age 88 or 90. As long as you are able to walk around the neighborhood, you’re able to do these hikes.
Potterfield talked about a hike with his 10-year-old godson.
Peter Potterfield: He was pretty young, and we did a 10 mile hike into the Goat Rocks area of the Cascades. It was a beautiful place where you look over here, and you see Mt. Rainier, you look over here and you see Mt. Adams. So this was an experience that the kid has never forgotten, and it made him a lifelong hiker.
There are upsides, Potterfield said, to hiking besides just physical fitness.
Peter Potterfield: With a pack, and your feet, you just walk, and walk, and walk. And there’s a spiritual side to that. Psychologically, you feel the wind, you feel the sun on your face, you see the night sky. This has the effect of opening up your mind to things that maybe you weren’t open to before. Once you’ve been out there and seen these beautiful places, I think that it makes you a more humble inhabitant of the planet.
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