High points offer great view of fireworks

The first rule of writing about the outdoors is to write about the outdoors. And in order to write about the outdoors, one has to, in all likelihood, spend time there. That said, this July 4 will likely find me watching a Mets game in the middle of a perfectly good summer afternoon. Like any true American, I love the run-saving catch, the bang-bang play and the greatest individual accomplishment: the home run.Hikers can find themselves seduced by individual accomplishments, too. We want to achieve goals and reach destinations. We want to hike the entire Appalachian Trail, scale Mt. McKinley or just reach the vista on top of Pine Knob. When successive days of rain put the kibosh on a longer trip to some 4,000 peaks in the White Mountains, my girlfriend and I decided to swing for more local fences, backpacking to the highest point in the state on the south side of Mt. Frisell.Starting from the lot below Lions Head, however, fate conspired to adjust our attitude. A gaggle of middle-schoolers tumbled down the trail to a breakfast of doughnuts in celebration of their first multi-night backpacking jaunt. Having dodged thunderstorms and weathered dozens of potential calamities, they could not have been more enthusiastic about the outdoors, and as we started up the pine-lined trail, I made a mental note to be more Zen about the outing.Soon enough, I was striding along one of my favorite parts of the trail, a smooth brown ribbon threaded through hemlocks, with the sun piercing the canopy and a dry zephyr cooling my back, and I had forgotten all about our destination. I was in the moment, 100 percent. When we reached Lions Head, we spent as much time chatting with the AMC Trail Runner there as we did absorbing the view, and idle banter passed our time between there and lunch at the Mt. Riga shelter.Backpacking is life in its most distilled form. It’s you, carrying everything you could possibly need to survive, walking the earth. And yet, every inch of the AT reminds hikers that they never walk alone. After lunch, we stumbled upon the section of trail that was burned last spring when some careless campers sent local fire companies scrambling to extinguish a blaze that dozens of unmissable signs told them not to light in the first place. A mile-and-a-half later, a well-maintained sign directed us toward Bear Mountain. When we reached the high point at Mt. Frisell, a copper marker told us that we had arrived.None of this is accidental, and while I may have reached the summit of Mt. Frisell through my own exertions, I also know that it was a team effort. The AMC, local politicians, landowners and volunteers all pitch in to give us the freedom to enjoy the great outdoors, from the highest point in the state to a nondescript but fragrant patch of ferns. Find a west-facing spot and enjoy the fireworks this week.Ian Strever is the assistant principal at Housatonic Valley Regional High School in Falls Village.