"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
