What Works

8Choosing Your Direction

Since we do not succeed in fleeing it, let us therefore try to look the truth in the face. Let us try to assume our fundamental ambiguity. It is in the knowledge of the genuine conditions of our life that we must draw our strength to live and our reason for acting.

— Simone de Beauvoir, The Ethics of Ambiguity⁷⁸

THERE'S A TRAIL system I love to hike outside of Kalispell, Montana. It's not a big draw like Glacier National Park is. If you're just visiting, you'd never even know that it's there. The trail system is unassuming, located in a small county park. But the terrain is exactly what I love about being outdoors in Montana—quiet, dry, and full of tamaracks. Plus, I can “choose my own adventure” with the trails to create exactly the hike I'm looking for. The only issue is that my mother-in-law told me to be wary of mountain lions a couple of years ago, and I'm still not over that.

The trailhead overlooks a small equestrian center, and the trail itself skirts its edges to start. Down the trail a couple hundred yards, right where the grassy field gives way to the woods, I confront my first choice. I can stay low on the Family Trail, or I can start making my way to the view on the Notch Trail. I choose the Notch Trail—a winding single-track with a moderate elevation gain. The trail leads me up to a few hundred feet from the overlook—at which point, I have a couple of options. Stay on the Notch Trail, or go left or right on the Overlook Trail. I always ...