"Hiking - I don’t like either the word or the thing. People 

ought to saunter in the mountains - not hike! Do you know 

the origin of that word ‘saunter?’ It’s a beautiful word. Away back 

in the Middle Ages people used to go on pilgrimages to the Holy 

Land, and when people in the villages through which they passed 

asked where they were going, they would reply, “A la sainte terre,’ 

‘To the Holy Land.’ And so they became known as sainte-terre-ers 

or saunterers. Now these mountains are our Holy Land, and we 

ought to saunter through them reverently, not ‘hike’ through them."

- John Muir