Hi everyone! Thanks for visiting. This site is still under construction, so not everything works yet. I expect it to go live sometime in late January. In the meantime, I can recommend the “Why Improvise?” page and my articles about hitchhiking across the country. Cheers!

So you want to try riding across the country with craigslist yourself? Maybe you’d like to, but you’re not sure if it can be done safely? It can, and here’s how to do it. This guide is for anyone looking for specific advice on how to use craiglist rideshare in a reasonably safe and reliable manner, particularly if you’re new to rideshares, and it’s a great way to start improvising with your travel plans.

Please note: No matter what precautions you take, you can never completely eliminate the risk that comes with getting in a stranger’s car. Using craigslist rideshare is never 100% safe—but then, neither is driving your own car. The good news is, you are in control of how much risk you’re taking. If you follow the advice here, by the time you need to get in their car, your ride will become less of a stranger and more of an acquaintance you feel comfortable around, which greatly reduces the risk. Some risk is still there, but since you are carefully choosing your ride ahead of time, it’s at a reasonable level.

Most of what this guide is about is learning to trust your intuition and knowing what to look for. Since there are a lot of variables involved in deciding whether to trust someone, that makes the guide long. But don’t be fooled: the process itself is pretty straightforward. In fact, the whole thing can be boiled down to one basic idea: go with someone you feel good about. That’s it. The rest is just details.

Ready? Here we go.

Step 1: Figure out your “destination.”

If you have a specific place in mind, great. For major cities like Chicago or LA, you’re set. If it’s a smaller city or town, use Google Maps to look up the big cities and roads nearby. For example, if you are on a roadtrip to see the world’s largest treehouse in Crossville, Tennessee, then you should know that Crossville is on I-40 halfway between Knoxville and Nashville.

"At the heart of the Minister's Tree House sits a chapel with pews, weathered Bibles, and a basketball hoop. If you brave the rickety ladders to the bell tower, you'll have the religious experience of viewing Jesus (the word, not the person) landscaped into the field below."

More pictures of the Minister’s Tree House here. Who wouldn’t want to road trip to this thing?

But I put “destination” in quotes because one of the great things about craigslist is you don’t necessarily need an exact destination—a direction, like “west,” will do just fine. Or just start looking at the rideshare posts and see what strikes your fancy.

Step 2: Check out potential rides.

Practically everywhere has its own craigslist, and most states have more than one. (There are even international craigslists, from Hong Kong to Tunisia.) Check out the master list to see what’s near you. Then, from your area’s main page, look under “community” and click on “rideshare.”

Look for anyone going in your general direction on dates that work for you. If you’re going to a major city, you have a good chance of making it directly there.

If your destination is smaller, try looking for the largest city after it, so that your ride can drop you off on the way. For example, if you’re starting in New York and bound for that treehouse in Crossville, TN, your best bet is probably to shoot for Nashville. But really, anyone headed roughly southwest from New York could work, as long as they’ll be on I-40 in Tennessee, even if their final destination is, say, Dallas or San Diego.

You can also try searching the rideshare board for cities before your starting point, to see if someone can pick you up along the way. Again, Google Maps is your friend.

How far ahead should you start looking for a ride? You can look anytime, but most rides appear a few days to a week in advance. There are plenty of rides posted on Thursday or Friday that leave on Saturday. (It also helps to leave on a weekend.) But if it’s 1-2 days before you need to leave and you still haven’t found a ride, it’s time to start considering other means of transportation.

And what about posting your own ad, “Ride Needed”? You’re welcome to try, but your odds of actually getting a ride are pretty low. I’ve personally never seen it work. Especially for long-distance trips, most people who might take you would still want to post their own “Ride Offered,” so that they can hand-pick their ideal passenger from several possibilities. The best strategy, then, is to use that to your advantage and contact as many “Ride Offered” posts as are going in your direction, so that you can hand-pick your ideal driver.

Step 3: Contact your potential rides and tell them about yourself.

I suggest the following three-part formula. Start with the basics:

• where you saw their ad
• your destination (if it’s small, mention big cities/roads nearby)
• your timeframe for getting there
• how much luggage you have
• any other people or pets you’re traveling with

Throw in a sentence to explain why you’re going where you’re going, and why it’s important to you.

But don’t stop there—your initial email (or phone call) is your starting point for finding not just a ride, but a safe ride that you get along with. The best way to find a ride you both feel good about is to give more information. So next, add a bit about yourself:

• your age (e.g. “I’m in my thirties”)
• your occupation and/or some of your interests
• some of the music you listen to
• your Facebook profile or personal website
• a casual photo of you (if you don’t have Facebook)

You are trying to give an overall sense of your personality here, as your ride will ultimately have to spend hours with you in the car (and you with them).

Finally, finish up with driving logistics:

• how much you can contribute in gas money (e.g. “a bit,” “half,” “$20 to $30”)
• other things you can contribute, like driving, good conversation, buying dinner, etc.
• whether or not you smoke
• if you plan on driving, say whether you have a valid license, what your driving record is like, and if you’ve ever driven long distances before

Details like this help make you an active partner in the trip, rather than just a passive passenger, and noting your driving record will help put the other person at ease with possibly letting you drive their car.

That’s three short paragraphs, maybe 10 sentences total, but they go a long way towards getting you a good ride. Include an email and phone number where you can be reached, hit send, and wait for responses.

Step 4: Get to know your potential rides and choose someone you feel good about.

Now it gets interesting. You’ll probably get a few short responses back, and your task is to figure out if those rides will actually work for you—that is, again, if you have not just a ride, but a safe ride that you get along with.

To figure out if you get along with a given person, you basically need to learn about them the same information that you gave them in Step 3. Rather than going back-and-forth in email, though, I highly recommend a phone call, where you can gauge their tone of voice and get an immediate gut feeling. On the phone, you will probably know in a few minutes whether your ride is a good fit, whereas an email exchange can take days.

When you’ve got them on the phone, ask your potential ride some basic questions, like:

• Where are you from? or, Where do you live?
• What do you do, for work or just in general?
• What kind of music do you listen to?
• Do you have a Facebook profile?
• What’s your general plan for the trip?

On one level, you’re looking for basic compatibility. If you’re into jazz and puppies, and your ride is into punk rock and anarchy, that’s probably not the best match, especially if it makes you uncomfortable. (If you are comfortable, go for it!) You may not need to ask all the questions to figure out if you’re compatible.

But you’re not just listening for what they say—you’re also listening for how they say it, which is far more important.

• Are they open to giving you information, or do they sound guarded?
• Are they enthusiastic about the trip in general?
• Most importantly, does talking to them make you feel comfortable or uncomfortable?

If the answers to any of these questions are on the negative side, mentally mark it as a red flag. A red flag isn’t an automatic disqualifier, but it’s part of your overall impression of this person.

Here are some other red flags to look for:

• Hesitating to give you basic information about themselves or the trip
• Acting like they’re avoiding or hiding something
• Being vague or evasive about their plan
• Being unreasonably pushy about doing things “their way”
• Sounding bored or annoyed or even angry
• Saying things that don’t make sense
• Saying things that make you feel annoyed or uncomfortable in any way

Even if you think it’s something innocuous, even if you think “well, maybe they were just nervous on the phone” or “my friend does that too, so it’s probably okay”—especially if you find yourself rationalizing that it might be okay—mark it as a red flag.

By itself, a red flag doesn’t mean much, unless it’s so strong that it’s a deal-breaker in and of itself. One red flag could mean the person was just nervous or awkward. Same with two. But if you hit three red flags, say no and move on. (For example: “You know, it looks like this isn’t going to work out for me. Good luck finding someone else. Bye.” No need to explain why.)

Three red flags means the person is consistently making you uncomfortable, and regardless of whether or not it means anything dangerous, you don’t want to spend hours in a car with someone who makes you feel like that.

By the same token, listen to your gut for green flags—things that put you at ease and make you feel good while talking to this person.

Some possible green flags at this stage are:

• Volunteering information, like a Facebook profile, on their own without you asking
• Getting excited about things you have in common, like music or hobbies, that you could talk about on the road
• Sharing mundane details like “Oh, my wife was just asking me…” or “I was just reading a book about that the other day…”
• Sounding calm, relaxed, and “normal,” whatever that means to you
• Saying things that make you feel comfortable and at ease

Listen to your gut. If it feels good, keep going. If it doesn’t, stop. Trust yourself to know the difference.

Step 5: Talk to your ride about safety

If, at this point, you feel okay (or better yet, excited) about the prospect of sitting for hours in the same car with this person, then it’s time to talk about safety. Any driver worth their salt will be happy to answer any concerns you may have, and this is another chance to look for red and green flags.

Some questions to ask:

• What kind of car do you have?
• Do you have insurance?
• How are you planning to pay for gas?
• Have you ever driven long distances before?
• Where do you plan on stopping for the night?
• Do you have a GPS or a map for navigation?
• What do you think about texting while driving?
• What would you do if the car broke down?

During this part of the conversation especially, listen to your gut for feelings of ehhh, this isn’t quite right or yeah, this person really knows what they’re doing. Again, you may not need to ask all of the questions to figure this out. Remember the rule: if you hit three red flags, say no and move on.

Possible red flags:

• Avoiding answering your questions, or giving evasive or vague answers
• Saying “Oh, yeah, I’ve totally got that covered” over and over, without explaining what the actual plan is
• Saying “that’s not your business” or “don’t tell me what to do” instead of answering your questions
• Being completely unprepared (e.g. they haven’t even considered that they might need GPS or a map on a long roadtrip)
• Saying that texting while driving is “totally fine, I do it all the time” or “that’s not your business”
• Saying things that make you feel annoyed or uncomfortable in any way

Possible green flags:

• Volunteering safety information, like driving history or how reliable their car is, on their own without you asking
• Having a definite plan for getting to the destination
• Being clearly prepared in case of an emergency
• Thinking about things like maps and night accommodations ahead of time
• Specifically asking you to be a safe driver, for example by asking you about your driving history, or by stating rules like “no alcohol” or “no texting while driving”
• Saying things that make you feel comfortable and at ease

One common phrase should NOT be taken as a green flag: “I’ve done this before.” While true, it could still mean “I’ve driven unsafely before, and I haven’t gotten caught.” You need to figure out what being safe really means to your driver and to you, and that’s what the specific questions above are for.

To be extra-cautious, for example if you have two red flags and aren’t sure, you can also ask for their license plate number, so that you can give it to a friend just in case (and tell your ride explicitly that you’re going to do so). If your ride doesn’t want to do this, there’s your third red flag right there.

Finally, if you’re still not sure how you feel about going with this person, the best thing you can do is to request a short face-to-face meeting or “coffee date” a few days before you leave. Bring a big map so you can discuss your route, or some music to share. This will give you a chance to get a better impression of the person and answer any lingering questions you may still have. Chances are, this meeting will push you over into a clear “yes” or “no.” And if you’re still uneasy, but find yourself rationalizing that it might be okay, that’s a “no” too.

Step 6: Get on the road!

Hopefully, you’ve now found someone you feel good or even great about driving together with. Good for you! With time, as you intuitively learn what kinds of things make you feel comfortable and uncomfortable, this process gets much faster and easier.

Give your ride a definite “yes,” then set a time and place to meet up to start the trip. A gas station is a good landmark and will have any last-minute supplies available. Make sure you have each other’s phone numbers, and that your phone is charged.

It’s a great idea to make some music mixes for the road, and they can be a bonding experience if your ride likes them too. Try to ask ahead of time if the car you’re riding in plays CD’s, tapes, or has an AUX input for an mp3 player, and bring the appropriate equipment. Otherwise, an FM transmitter that plugs into your mp3 player is a universal, if sometimes staticky, way to listen to your tunes.

It’s also a nice gesture to bring snacks for the car to share during the trip. Baby carrots or dried cranberries are tasty, healthy, and won’t leave crumbs everywhere. Homemade cookies are a nice thought, although some people might be uncomfortable with them because they don’t know what’s in them (and they do crumble). Make sure to bring a water bottle.

Most of all, get ready for awesome—you’re roadtripping across the country!

What have your craigslist experiences been like?

So it was that on Sunday morning at a gas station close to I-90 in Boston, I introduced myself to Bashir, my driving partner across the country for the next several days. A few minutes later, we were on the highway. Bashir seemed friendly and easygoing, while at the same time quite capable and self-reliant. I learned that he grew up in Dubai and was quite well-traveled, although most of his travel stories involved him getting drunk on trains in Europe with the locals. He never stayed put in one place for long. This time, he was moving to California to start his own business. He wasn’t interested in asking me many questions, and since I didn’t watch any of the TV shows he wanted to talk about, conversation soon petered out. I was just as happy to look out the window at the road going by, something that’s always mesmerized me.

Good thing, too, because Bashir’s proposed driving schedule was intense. He wanted to make it to LA in time for his birthday, which was in 3 days. I was skeptical about how we were going to average over 15 hours of driving a day, but happy to contribute as much as I could. We agreed to switch driving every 4-5 hours or so, with food and rest stops as needed. This was easy for me, since I like highway driving and actually find it rhythmic and calming.

As the road hummed beneath our wheels, Bashir and I settled into a steady routine. There were three driving shifts a day: morning, afternoon, and night. Whoever was driving got to pick the music. Whoever wasn’t could read, watch movies, or sleep. Sometimes we talked; the GPS took care of navigation. Food became a ritual of McDonald’s for him, and something from Trader Joe’s for me. (I had brought two bags of groceries: avocados, tomatoes, hummus, tortillas, spinach, cheese, carrots, dried cranberries, etc.) But mostly we just drove, drove, and drove some more, from around 8 am to 10 pm, every day.

Music Choices Can Be a Big Deal

Given the amount of time we spent in the car together, it soon became a bit of a problem that I didn’t like any of Bashir’s music, and he didn’t like any of mine. Bashir had only one rule for what he wanted to listen to: it must be recent. As in, if it wasn’t on the radio, he didn’t want to hear it. Even the things he recognized on my mp3 player, he dismissed as “too old — the 90’s were so long ago!” (As for me, I think how new a song is says nothing about how good it is.) Surprisingly, popularity didn’t matter to him, so in addition to the usual dance pop, we also listened to several states’ worth of country music and even a Christian pop station all through California. Since Bashir was the one doing me a favor by giving me a ride, I decided to be just be flexible with my music preferences and let him choose most of the time. This turned out to be a good strategy to defuse any tension.

How Safe Is Safe?

Besides music taste, another thing you can’t really know before you get in the car with someone is how safely they drive, and what “safe” means to them. The first test with Bashir came when he wanted to watch a TV show on his iPad–while driving. Knowing the dangers of distracted driving, I immediately felt uncomfortable. Do I ask him to not do it? Is it even appropriate to ask someone to not do something in their own car? Do I insist on getting in the driver’s seat myself? Do I leave Bashir entirely, thereby losing my ride to California? Before doing any of these things, I decided to observe his driving carefully to see if there were any signs of distraction. If there were, then I could use that as specific evidence to back up my request. To my surprise, Bashir performed flawlessly. In the hour or so that he watched the show, he kept a good distance from the next car, did not speed or drift from his lane, braked appropriately and smoothly, changed lanes carefully, and did not show any signs of wandering attention. Unexpectedly for me, I decided it was fine to continue being Bashir’s passenger, and so we drove on.

The second test came the next day, when I took the morning driving shift. As soon as I asked Bashir how he’d slept, I was faced with another problem: he’d only slept an hour because he’d been cold all night. I told him I was very uncomfortable with him driving after only one hour of sleep. His response? “Don’t babysit me.” This was enough of a red flag that I almost left right then, but again I decided to keep that as a last resort and try another solution first. I tried playing the same kind of music that the day before he’d said “was too slow and made him sleepy.” It worked: I kept driving a bit longer, and Bashir got a bit more sleep, enough that I felt okay letting him take the wheel in the afternoon. Again I observed his driving carefully for several hours, and he didn’t seem dazed or distracted. We drove on.

Sleeping Arrangements

Sleep was a much more interesting issue, particularly since I wasn’t keen on paying for a hotel room. Fortunately, Bashir had a huge SUV and hardly any belongings with him (as he’d already shipped most of them to California). Thus, the first night, parked in an Ohio rest area, we slept by folding down the back seats of his SUV to make a relatively flat area to put our respective sleeping bags. I thought it might be a bit awkward to sleep next to each other, but there was enough space and I fell asleep so quickly that it didn’t matter.

For the second night, Bashir wanted more comfort, so he bought a queen air mattress at Walmart to put in the back of the SUV. Pretty sweet deal, right? Except that it just barely didn’t fit. Instead of lying flat, the mattress curled up at the edges, meaning anyone sleeping on it would roll towards the center, and two people could only sleep literally on top of each other. That’s how I found myself setting up my camping tent, which I’d brought for exactly this possibility, on the grass somewhere in the back of a rest area in Iowa. Scary? No, not at all. I set up my tent in the shadows, which made it very unlikely for people to notice me, and next to a fence, which provided a barrier from any animals. (I still had to convince Bashir that, no really, I wasn’t going to get eaten by a bear. There aren’t even any bears in Iowa.) The tent setup worked fine, no one disturbed me, and I had a restful sleep.

The third night, Bashir decided that he just wanted to keep driving, to just get to LA and get it over with. Sadly, that meant we drove through the most beautiful scenery of the trip (Utah and Nevada) in darkness, but I’d seen it before so I didn’t mind too much. Plus, the mountains of Colorado had already blown my mind earlier that day. We just kept doing 5-hour driving shifts all through the night, and around the 5 am mark, when I noticed myself zoning out, I pulled over for an extra nap in the driver’s seat. Then I woke up and kept going, awed by the sunrise.

And so, on the morning of the fourth day, after a marathon 20 hours of driving with slight breaks in-between, we finally rode into the City of Angels. In fact, it was a bit like riding directly into the apocalypse: pounding rain, zero visibility, traffic jam to the horizon, and the aforementioned Christian pop music blasting on the radio.

I had made it to California in exactly 3 days, having seen the landscape of the entire country change before my eyes. Was it worth it? Absolutely. And I’d do it again, too.

In the next post, I’ll share some tips and tricks for how you can use craigslist for long-distance rides like this one.

Hitchhiking across the country is something I’ve wanted to do for a long time, in part because I thought it was impossible. Not “impossible” as in “cannot be done,” but rather in the sense of it taking far too much time, effort, and frustration to be practical. On the other hand, I love proving myself wrong by doing the seemingly impossible, so when the perfect opportunity presented itself in the form of a college reunion in California, I took it.

With the prospect of reuniting with all my friends in the Berkeley hills as my siren call, I needed to figure out a way to get across the country. More importantly, I needed to get there by a certain date, and I only had a week to do it. If I arrived a day too late, the reunion would already be over. Given the importance of getting to California on time, I ruled out straight-up hitchhiking from point to point, where rides can be unpredictable.

Flying was already out of the picture. What next? Enter craigslist.

Craigslist, it turns out, is full of people driving across the country in every direction. Boston to Florida? Boston to Montreal? Boston to Chicago? Check, check, and check: people are offering rides like this every week. Often, what they want is gas money, which at $400+ for 3,000 miles in a regular sedan is quite prohibitive for a single driver. (For comparison, one-way airfares from New York to LA are often less than $200.) Because gas prices create high demand for long-distance rideshares, it is actually much easier to find a cross-country ride on craigslist than it is to find a ride to a place a few hours away.

The other popular reason people post rides on craigslist is to split up the long hours of driving, and since I love driving and wanted a cheap trip, that’s exactly who I was looking for.

Red Flags: Sometimes It’s a Good Idea to Say No

My first response came from David, who had posted a ride from Boston to San Francisco on the dates I wanted and was looking for a second driver. We spoke on the phone, he gave me the details of his trip, we set a date to meet up a few days beforehand, and everything seemed to be working out. That is, until we got to the money issue.

I told him up-front that I had a very small budget, maybe $50 or $75. This was meant as a token contribution, as it was nowhere near what it would be to split the gas costs evenly. At first, David said OK. Then he said that he wanted the money upfront, before we even got in the car together, to “guarantee” that he would have a second driver. That was the first red flag: asking for money in advance. I countered that I could give him half at our pre-meeting and the other half when we started driving (I realize now that a much better plan would have been to give him the money once we got to a pre-determined place, like Chicago or LA). Then he insisted that a minimum of $100 was my fair share. I reminded him that my budget was $75 max, as I’d said before, and his response was still $100. That was the second red flag: being pushy about money. Coupled with the fact that he sounded kind of boring to begin with, I decided it was better to bow out. I wished him luck and told him I’d find another ride.

Green Flags: This Time’s the Charm

With only 4 days to go until the departure date, I was hoping to get really lucky on craigslist, and I knew I had a decent shot since most rides are posted only 2-3 days in advance. If nothing else, I could try point-to-point hitchhiking or pay up for a flight. To my amazement, craigslist came through: a guy named Bashir was headed out to LA, on the same day I wanted to leave. Again we talked on the phone and confirmed the details of the trip: so far, so good.

Instead of red flags like with David, Bashir was raising green flags all over the place. First, he asked if I had a clean driving record and if I had ever driven long distances, to make sure I was a safe and skilled driver. Second, he mentioned that he was getting an emergency kit prepared (water, flashlight, power inverter to plug things into the car like a normal power outlet, spare tire, jumper cables, etc.), again showing a concern for safety. Third, he said he had recently driven from Boston to Miami and back, by himself. Fourth, he had a definite plan and schedule for getting to California by a certain day. He sounded experienced, confident, and was happy for me to contribute to the trip by driving instead of paying. I gave Bashir a definite yes. With all the green flags, I didn’t even feel the need for a pre-meeting.

I had a ride to California.

So what was the trip really like? Read the next post in the series to find out.

Originally, this was going to be a blog about traveling abroad, especially to challenging places like Burma or rural China. Then I realized I wanted to live near my friends more than I wanted to travel right now, so I threw my vagabond-around-the-world plan out the window and moved back to the United States instead. No big deal, I thought, I’ll write about traveling within your home country or city, because that’s important too. Yet somehow, it didn’t feel quite right to be writing about exploring my new home, Boston. It felt too… mundane, predictable. I wanted to write about something that really fired me up.

I let this idea tumble around in my mind for a while, until last week, when I was telling some friends how I had just driven across the country from Boston to LA, in 3 days flat, with a guy from craigslist. Their response: “But… how the hell did you DO that?!” And I realized that that’s exactly the kind of travel I want to write about. Doesn’t matter if it’s in another country or your own backyard, by yourself or with a tour group. If it makes other people say “Wow!” then that’s my kind of adventure, and the kind I want to help other people have too.

That’s what this blog is about: how to make crazy adventures happen. How to travel in a way that makes people’s eyes get big and their jaws drop. How to do the kind of insane shit that makes people say, “God DAMN I want to do that!”

Not just getting off the beaten path, but blazing your own path. That is the art of improvisational travel.

Today’s exploration began modestly enough. I went for a run in a local park that I hadn’t visited before, but quickly tired of running loops around the perimeter and left in search of something more interesting. After only a few minutes’ walk, I found it: a building called the Sai Ying Pun Community Center, which I had seen countless times from the window of the minibus, always with the same question: “I wonder what’s inside…?”

The Sai Ying Pun Community Center

Peering through a door, I saw an audience of several hundred people watching something onstage. At first I thought it was a church sermon, but when the “pastor” began to sing, I realized I had stumbled on my first surprise: it was actually a performance of traditional Cantonese music. Two middle-aged women in glittering pantsuits sang the vocals, accompanied by several orchestra members playing instruments like the gaohu (a two-string fiddle with a plaintive, droning sound) and the dizi (a resonant bamboo flute).

Judging from the waves of grey-haired heads nodding in time to the music, I was the only person under 50 in the room, and likewise the only one who didn’t understand Cantonese. Still, it was a unique window into a part of the Hong Kong community I rarely get a chance to interact with. The older members of the audience had probably seen Hong Kong evolve from a barely inhabited port overshadowed by Shanghai in the 1930s to today’s booming international megacity. When they weren’t playing endless games of mah-jongg or cards, this was how they chose to spend their Sunday afternoons.

After listening to a few songs, I left in search of more surprises. At the intersection where I normally turn torwards home, I looked in the opposite direction and realized I had never gone up that particular street despite living next to it for almost a year. So I set out to answer another of my favorite questions for exploring: “I wonder where this goes…?”

My curiosity was richly rewarded. The road wound up, up, up into the mountain that is Hong Kong Island. The farther up I went, the more expensive the houses looked and the denser the trees got. When the road dead-ended I was left alone, listening to drops of water fall between the lush leaves overhead. This would have been surprise enough in itself: standing in what felt like a rainforest, not 20 minutes away from the most densely populated square kilometer on the planet.

But just when I was preparing to leave, I saw my final prize: a tiny paved path leading into the very middle of the rainforest. This is exactly the sort of thing I hope to find when I go exploring: an intriguing piece of the landscape, unlisted in any guidebook, perhaps not even known to most people who live there — and all mine to discover. I stepped over the threshold.

At first the path was well-kept, with impressive views of the harbor glimpsed through the trees. But soon I started having to push through more and more overgrown branches and follow increasingly crumbling stairs set into the steep mountainside. I ducked under huge steel beams that seemed to be part of a landslide prevention system, involving a series of fences kept under tension by the beams. I guessed that the path had originally been a maintenance trail for workers to repair the fences, but for some reason had been abandoned. By the end, I was bushwacking through the forest in earnest. I finished by clambering down a water spillway back to civilization below.

By the time I made it back home, I was wet, muddy, and sported several mosquito bites. Pleasant afternoon stroll? Hardly. This was far better: I had opened myself up to the universe, and the universe had once again amazed me with its beauty. The world is full of tiny treasures, and I’d found three of them today in the space of just two hours. I was exhilarated.

To explore is to be in love with the world.