We believe that expeditions should be grand, Torbjørn Ekelund notes in his memoir, "A Year in the Woods." But sometimes life doesn't allow for long journeys. So why not take short ones?
Ekelund grew up in the out-of-doors, but at age 42, with a demanding job, a partner and two children, he came to realize "something was missing. The woods had become a place associated with my past."
And so he hatched a plan: He would spend one night in the forest every month for a year. Hike in one day, hike out the next.
It would be, he hoped, "an expedition in which every single component was small. Experiences, distances, timespan."
His plan was to visit the same spots each time, "because I knew that if I paid enough attention, they would have changed slightly each time I went."
Ekelund is fortunate to live in Oslo, Norway, where the deep Nordmarka forest lies just outside the edge of the city. "It is a privilege," he says, to live so close to wilderness. That proximity made the plan easy; he could leave work midday and be at his campsite well before nightfall.
And so in January 2013 he found himself trudging along a forest path, the snow 3 feet deep on either side, his pack weighing far too much, his new boots squeaking so loudly he couldn't think.
Ekelund's occasional gentle humor is delightful; he doesn't take himself or his plan too seriously, which keeps the book from collapsing under its own importance. He is acutely aware that 12 nights in the forest is a tiny gesture in the scheme of things, and so the title — borrowed from Henry David Thoreau — is both true and a little self-mocking.
