HIking in Chora - Stephen Mason

In Lane's book "Landscapes of the Sacred," he talks about the differences between topos and chora. Topos he defines as a mere location with no spiritual aspect associated with it while he defines chora as a place that "carries it own unique energy and power" leading one to see more then the material. Early in my life I had seen the acticity of hiking as more of a "series of topos" with a certain amount of miles that needed to be accomplished until the end goal was in sight. Experiencing the wilderness came to me as a secondary affect to hiking to get to the ending location. It wasnt until later that I realized that to really get the most out of the hiking experience that i had to make the step from viewing the trails as a "series of topos" to a "series of chora." By doing this it makes me get lost in the experience rather then counting down the miles to the end of the trail.