S1: Welcome. In San Diego , it's Jade Hindman. Today we are talking with a local author who shares their journey of wellness through hiking. This is Kpbs Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Welcome back. You're listening to Kpbs Midday Edition. I'm Jade Hindman. When was the last time you went for a hike ? It's a great hobby , but author Sidney Williams wants to show how hiking can be transformative to your mental and physical health. To their upcoming book , Hiking Your Feelings is a memoir and practical guide for those looking to find their own wellness through hiking. Midday edition producer Andrew Bracken sat down with Williams to talk about the healing power of nature , and why anyone can hike their feelings. Take a listen.
S2: So , okay , I kind of want to start. This might be a silly question , but my producer , Juliana and I were talking about this earlier.
S3: There isn't a difference in my mind. The outdoor industry and and the people traditionally associated with it will have you believe you have to have the right gear. You can only do this in the Alps , right ? Like it better be hard or it's not worth it. Hiking is walking. We've been doing it with some degree of success since we were toddlers. And for me , the distinguishing factor between. A hike and a walk is the intent. We we spent all of 2021 on the road highlighting nearby nature. We hiked and I say we hiked 220 miles around the city of Chicago. You wouldn't think Chicago. You're not hiking in Chicago , yes I was. There's a great loop called the Outer Belt that connected existing pedestrian walkways and their existing trail systems. And you never left green space , and you walked 220 miles around the city of Chicago. We did the same thing across the state of Michigan. So for me , it's not necessarily the difficulty or even the terrain , but the intent. If I want to go wander around town , I'm hiking. If I'm walking to get from like point A to 711 , that's a walk. I mean , it could be a hike if I , like , have an adventure on the way and on the streets. You might , but that seems that's the difference for me. And a lot of people have different metrics , like it's not a hike unless it's X amount of distance. That is excluding literally everybody with two legs who's capable of walking from having a really profound experience.
S2: Well , thanks for that because that is a question I have. I also grew up in Chicago , in the city , and walked a lot. We didn't have a car for much of my childhood. Yeah , but that's just something , you know , like walking urban walking is a big deal. Yeah , but just how you think of it. So thanks for that. So now in your book , you write about two backpacking trips that really changed your life.
S3: It spans from tip to tip of Santa Catalina Island , which is off the coast of Los Angeles , California , 38.5 miles long. A good intro to backpacking for the sheer fact. Not because it's easy , because it's not , but it's a great intro to backpacking for the sheer fact that a lot of the what ifs that surround backpacking like where do I get water ? How do I like sleeping on the ground ? How far away is helped ? Like the things that prevent people from taking that first step on a backpacking journey ? The Trans Catalina Trail solves for. So for me , those two trips were I mean , initially , before I even set foot on a backpacking trip , I was like , I'm going to be a Triple Crown hiker. Do you know what that means ? No. Okay , so Triple Crown hiker is somebody that has done the Pacific Crest Trail , which is Mexico to Canada. They've done the Appalachian Trail from Georgia to Maine , and they've done the Continental Divide Trail , which follows the Rocky Mountains from New Mexico up to Canada. And I had never , ever worn a backpack in my life. And I was like , I'm going to be a Triple Crown year because that's how I roll. And I figured that the Trans Catalina Trail would be a good testing ground to see if I even like this. Am I good at it ? Like , I had been doing day hikes here and there , but I hadn't ever done multiple days in a row like that. So it was a really great introduction to backpacking. The first trip I did , and back in 2016 , I was probably 70 or £80 heavier than I am today. I had just come off two of the hardest years of my life , and that is experience was the most physical thing I've ever done on this planet , in this body , in this lifetime. And that's coming from somebody that was a Division one athlete in college and a competitive skydiver for four years. I've done a lot of physical stuff. But hiking on Catalina Island , especially because the majority of those trails where it is a trail , because it's a mix of trail in the roads on the island where it is a trail. The trail builder followed the bison tracks on the island and just made a trail out of it. On Catalina. You're looking at it. You're like , yep , that's where bison go. So that's where I'm going today. And it was really , really hard , not just because of the physical aspect , which was the most difficult , but I was so in my head and I had been avoiding so much for so long that on that trail , the first time in 2016 was the first time that I ever had any semblance of quiet in my mind where I could explore the things that I had been through and how this trail was helping me heal.
S2: And you write about some of these. You know , personal struggles. Yeah , including grief and career stress , body image , as you mentioned.
S3: So when I was going through the hardest days in my life , I didn't have access to therapy. I couldn't afford it or when I could afford it , and I did have access. I was terrified because I was like , I don't need some lady telling me I'm broken. I know this , this is why I need help. But I had tried all the journaling. I had tried meditating. I read every Brené Brown book you could possibly read. You know , like I , I really dove as far into some kind of healing as I could. But what happened every single time before hiking is I would be in a meditation , or I would be journaling and reflecting on something , and I would get activated or triggered by a memory , and my body would go into fight or flight. And I wouldn't have anywhere to put that energy. So I would just shut down and be like , oh , that's too scary. I don't feel like reliving anything ever again. And it wasn't until actually the second hike on Catalina in 2018 , where I realized the the truly transformative healing power of nature wasn't just the reconnection with the birds and the trees. It wasn't just having the open space and the fresh air. It was having somewhere to put that energy because I was going up this ridgeline and like I had all these stories in the back of my head , all the negative things that I've ever internalized from people in authority positions , parents , the bully and the cafeteria and middle school. All those stories that I had told myself , which had activated me to the point of shutdown before. As I'm going up this ridgeline , I can just stomp it out into the mountain. So hiking specifically gave me the opportunity to dispel that energy in my body and put it somewhere so I could actually get to the point of healing , instead of just getting caught up on the things I was trying to heal from.
S2: You mentioned stomping it out on the mountain.
S3: And I was curious , like , is it is it that that's giving me that healing , or is it just being out here , or is it just choosing to not focus on something difficult , which frees up space and creativity and opens up your mind a bit ? So for me , it's it's it happens in both in both kinds of areas. I've had incredible healing on a tunnel of trees surrounded by city streets , but it's just like an old rail to trail trail. And I think the the act of practicing mindfulness is hiking in itself without even , like going to find some beautiful place where you can just like , let your mind be free and sit on a tuffet and look at the scenery. Like if you don't even have that. Just the idea of picking out a trail and doing some research and figuring out what kind of gear you need. If you actually need your eyes , you just need shoes and water. Get the rest of it later. Like just by intending to go on a hike , whatever the hike looks like for you. If that's like , I'm going to plan a route around my neighborhood because that's where I started , or I'm going to go do something like the Trans Catalina Trail. Just the act of planning before you even set foot on the trail. You're already practicing mindfulness , so it's not exclusively available only to people that spend days on end in terrain far from other humans. It's available to you when you choose it , and it's available at any time.
S2: So you put out your first book , Hiking My Feelings. After that second Catalina trip you were telling us about.
S3: All the lessons learned along the way , the connection points that I came to understand on that trail. So while the trail ended in 2018 and the book was published less than a year later , I was just so profoundly moved by the opportunity to tell my own story and not have it told for me , and not having it told in a way that's like , okay , for the masses or whatever. I was just like , I just want to tell it because I've been keeping it to myself. I was a week into my book tour to support hiking my feelings when the pandemic happened. So I was in Joshua Tree. I was sitting in the parking lot getting ready to host my first ever workshop with the national park. And this is now where , like , so this is March 2020. So we're less than two years into this journey as hiking my feelings and I'm like , we're crushing. Like I'm doing stuff with national parks. Are you kidding me ? This is amazing. And it was the first thing of all the things that got canceled that year. And the book had been out , I published it in December 2019. The book had been out for a couple months when the pandemic hit and things were looking up because we had done everything in 2018 and 2019 on our own dime before we incorporated , before we started hiking my feelings as a nonprofit , and we were like , oh my God , like , we're making money. Like , I go to a bookstore and I'm making like a couple hundred bucks. I'm like , hey , like I'm killing it. And then the pandemic happened. And then like , Amazon was like , we're not printing books because we got to sell sanitizer and then like. And I used everything that I poured into that book to now build all of the foundational programs that we offer through hiking my feelings , all of our experiences , everything that we could possibly do , we built from that book. But the book itself , I don't think , got a fair shot one , because I self-published and I didn't really know what I was doing too , because it just like sales got chopped off at the knees in 2020 during the pandemic. And I , I like met this publisher happenstance. At a concert of all places , and I was just like , I have a book. And the book that I was pitching was the book that I haven't even written yet. And I was like , so I go and I pitch that , and I was like , this is the book that I want to write. It's going to be my big debut as a real live author if I get a deal. And then I was like , and by the way , I have this book and a workbook that I developed for it for hiking my feelings that I'd love to breathe some new life into. Like , I don't think it got the life that it should have. And also at that point I had written that book several years prior and we've learned a ton. I found so much language through facilitating the events that we facilitate to describe what happened to me , that I was like , I've got a lot of insights to include in this book , so hiking your feelings. I'm viewing this kind of as like a remix of Hiking My Feelings. So if you've read my first book , The Story of the Two Hikes across Catalina Island , we're still following that same timeline. But where this book differs and where I think it's very , very strong is in the resources and and the relating that is there.
S2: I mean , you talked about San Diego , kind of where you started hiking. We are very lucky here , very blessed. We have a lot of potential places we can hike and experience the outdoors. But what are some of your favorite hiking spots in the area ? And yeah , maybe a couple beginner ones that people could could check out.
S3: Well , I'll tell you , um , the hike that started it all for me is Kushi pie , which is also known as Stonewall Peak. Cushy Pi is the ancestral Kumeyaay name for the mountain that is now Stonewall Peak and Kumiko Rancho State Park out in East County. It's short , it's steep , it'll get your blood pumping , but you get up there and you've got just unparalleled views of San Diego County on a clear day. And this is this is also my work taught me about my work before I knew what my work was , because I went up there and I was promised 360 degree views of San Diego County. And what did I get ? Nothing major socked in , can't see nothing. And it was in that moment. Instead of being like , look at all the things that I can take pictures of , I was like , oh , there's no view. It's like me and this squirrel begging for my almonds. I'm going to like , scan my body and see why I feel so calm. Because I just quit two jobs in the span of five months. I should be freaking out , but I feel like I'm in savasana at the end of a yoga class. How does that work ? So it doesn't have to be some big , huge hike ? Stonewall peaks a great one. Um. Mission Trails Regional Park used to formally have this challenge called the Five Peak Challenge within Mission Trails , which includes Cowles , Kipp South , Fortuna North , Fortuna , and Pyles Peak. And you could go do those one at a time. You could do it all in one day. We did it in 2018 as a training hike for the Trans Catalina Trail , and we did all five peaks in one day. But you can break that up over a series of weekends. And if you want to come to hang out with us and and like if you're in San Diego and you want a nice , easy start and you're like , Sydney , it sounds like this sounds pretty cool. It sounds like I might have to do some work. Sounds like it's not going to be a joy ride all the time , but like the benefits are outweighing the cons on this. I'd like to join you then. We've got an awesome event coming up with Mission Trails Regional Park Foundation at Mission Trails , and it's just a nice flat walk and talk. We'll do a little book signing , do a little hike , but it's a nice , easy way to get you out there. And it's a planned event so you know you're not going to be alone. If you're scared of being alone and you're going to meet some really cool people because our community is full of , I would argue , some of the coolest people on the planet.
S2: Yeah , that's great. And I think we'll have some of that information on our website at npr.org.
S3: This is not the time to hike with a six pack of White Claw , y'all. Like we got it. We got to stay hydrated with the good stuff. No booze. Like bring your water , wear comfortable shoes. Socks are going to as you start getting into longer hikes. Socks are an important , uh , rabbit hole to dive down. But ultimately , aside from having water , the right shoes and knowing where you're going. So some kind of app , some kind of map and all the things associated with , like the ten essentials of of doing a hike and having the right equipment. More often than not , the stuff we actually need is the stuff we already possess. That's curiosity , right ? Like be curious about what's around you. That's how we practice mindfulness. Be confident in the skills that you have. What's between your two ears ? That's the best thing you're bringing with you on the trail every single time is your capacity to assess risk. If it doesn't feel right in your body , then listen to your body. Turn around and go home. At the end of the day , when it comes down to like , what is a hiking my feelings hike about ? What does the hiking my feelings event about ? We aren't doing anything massive like I talk about , and I use these backpacking trips as the example. I've hosted one backpacking retreat in my life. Most of our events are 2 to 5 miles. One hike a day and the rest of it is workshopping. Being present with each other in nature , learning different skills , seeing other cool places. But it's not only hiking. Hiking in all reality , for as much as it is the name of our organization and my books that I write , it's probably one of the smallest parts of the things we do when we look at the time spent together. So it doesn't have to be some big adventure , is what I'm saying. You can go put on a nice pair of sneakers , grab your water bottle , bring your brain , you know , and just and just have a good time.
S1: That was Midday Edition producer Andrew Bracken , speaking with Sydney Williams , author of Hiking Your Feelings and co-founder of the non-profit Hiking My Feelings. They'll be celebrating the launch of the book at Diesel Bookstore in Del Mar on March 12th.
