I cheated the other day. Well, kinda. Sorta. But you can do that when you’re seeking out the forgotten Monadnock peak known as Middle Pack.
Instead of doing it the “true” way—hiking up and over either Pack Monadnock or North Pack first—I took a shortcut and drove up to the summit of Pack Monadnock, something I’d never tried before. After paying four bucks for the pleasure at the gate (also a first, since I usually come out this way in the wintertime when the gate is unmanned), I climbed the surprisingly steep and bumpy road, hoping the bottom of the truck didn’t fall out. When I arrived at the top, I was relieved the drive was over—for my truck’s sake.
I chose to drive mostly because I didn’t have a lot of time, but also because I was with Bullet the Wonderdog. Long hikes can be a little rough on his feet. By skipping the initial climb to Pack Monadnock, I figured I could shrink the hike to Middle Pack to somewhere around two miles. I didn’t clock it, but either way, I knew it would be much more reasonable—and enjoyable—for Bullet.
The Wapack Trail
From the summit parking lot, we descended the Wapack Trail and soon came upon a designated area known as the Raptor Observatory. Apparently, a huge migration of hawks can be seen here every autumn, and I made a mental note to return then. After passing the area, we descended a good ways before making a moderate ascent of Middle Pack.
To reach the true summit of Middle Pack, you have to bushwhack a little ways, but it only takes a minute. When you near the summit you’ll bump into a cairn along the trail, and from there it’s a short hike up through the pine and scrub.
Bullet and I didn’t linger at the true summit, but we did take a moment near the trail cairn to enjoy the views. As you can see from the top image, he was very happy.
Thoughts From the Trail
As always, time on the trail gives me time to think, and this day was no different. On Middle Pack, a lot of my thoughts centered around my writing plan and figuring out what I actually want to do with my writing. I had a lot to think about.
Recently, someone told me about Substack, where writers are supposedly flocking to share their ideas and stories. True to form, I had never heard of it—even though it’s been around since 2017. 2017? The guy who told me about it said it’s only been around for a year or so! I checked out Substack’s website and it has me wondering if it’s a bit like Medium: a place where writers post their content, but no one’s really reading it except for other writers. It feels like it might just be another echo chamber, where writers applaud each other but never actually reach the people they’re trying to find. Is that true?
Questions, Questions, Questions
Whatever the truth is, the questions were flying on the trail: Should I do a Substack? Is that even how you say it? The first chapter of the next book is done—how do I get it discovered? Or get any of my writing discovered? What should I do? What is it that I want people to discover? My memoirs? The fiction I plan to write? Essays about the wilderness? My poetry? All of it? I wonder what magazines I should submit to…
Some of these thoughts I said out loud. Others rambled on in my head in extensible arcs. Bullet occasionally stopped what he was doing to see if any of my utterances involved him. When he realized they didn’t, he happily continued along the trail.
The Guiding Principle
I sometimes feel like I’m having explosions of thought, and I’m a little directionless about who I’m serving with the variety of writing I’m doing. Usually, when I come to the end of the trail where I’ve been noodling such things, I arrive at the same conclusion: the only true principle I need to follow is that I want my writing to help. Whether that’s fueling someone’s need to explore, offering a window into the writing game, encouraging fearlessness in taking on new challenges, or anything else in life. So with that principle in place, I guess I don’t really need to sweat where all of this is going or who I’m submitting to, as long as I keep doing what I love, writing for the purpose of its potential helpfulness.
And I know all this, deeply, in my bones. Except… a few days later, the same questions will start cycling through my head again. I’ll wake up, wondering if I need to change direction. To “pivot,” as they say. And when that happens, you can be sure that I’ll be heading back out on the trail, searching for answers, only to arrive at the same conclusion once more.
Oops! Looks like I overshot on the parking job.
Hiking and Writing
Sometimes I write about a big climb. Sometimes I write about the writing process. And sometimes, I write about both in the same post. If you like reading up on either, you can find more hiking stories at In the Mountains, and more about the writing process at In Writing, both at www.wanderingmatt8.com