Page 55 - Sharp Winter 2023

secret. People overthink things. “I don’t tend to overthink things. I take the bull by the horns and get on with it,” he says. When he was a kid growing up, he was surrounded by forests. He didn’t have sidewalks or immediate neighbours; he was one with nature, and became accustomed to being outside his own four walls at home. “If you love being in the forest and with nature, then you don’t really feel alone.” He continues, “That’s what I love about going out in the woods. It’s just so full of life...the wild plants, mushrooms, trees, and the incredible diversity of different living things. The birds, the wildlife, the forest tells a story.”
He compares the forest to reading a book; when you’re looking at the tracks on the ground, you start to build a narrative of what came before you. He says he “can get swept up in the story” about the place he is travelling. “When you’re so caught up in all of these things, the fact that you’re alone doesn’t even cross your mind.”
Shoalts does not overthink the journey. It’s a simple philosophy and one that will surely be daunting for most. It’s not like he has much time to stop when he’s out on adventures. He is constantly on the move, and when he stops for the night, that’s when he finds the time to start writing his next book. His days begin at 4 a.m., and he doesn’t stop till 9 p.m. Before he falls asleep is when he starts writing about his day in his journal. He likes to take what he sees during the day and put it on paper; perhaps something as simple as a cliff reminds him of an ancient castle. Those daily journal entries become the basis for all his books.
Shoalts will admit he does not spend time thinking about phil- osophical questions, including whether people should spend time alone with nature. He likes what he does. He doesn’t second-guess, and he doesn’t think about it any deeper. What you see is what you get. He believes to each their own and knows it’s not everyone’s cup of tea to spend all their time outside alone. But he thinks protecting wilderness is important.
“We need to preserve more vast wild places. It can be as simple as protecting these places for people to see and explore but leaving them in their natural habitat,” he says.
In his recent book, The Whisper of the Night Wind, there’s an afterword about what it would mean if we lose all these truly vast wild places. He suggests “that we would lose an essential part of human
culture and heritage. Suppose you look at cultures all over the world. In that case, it’s fascinating how the natural world has cast such a long shadow over our collective imaginations. You can see in different mythologies about wild places, and even today, if people don’t step foot in these ancient forests, just the mere fact of their existence on the edges of our civilization has always exercised such an extraordinary pull over the human imagination.” He suggests we would be losing something in the future if we no longer have access to vast space, we might have outer space, but it’s different. “It’s fundamentally alien; it’s not our home,” he says. It’s not something obtainable to 99.9 per cent of us.
Until the 1930s, most of Canada lived in rural farmlands and towns. It’s in our DNA as Homo sapiens; it’s in 99.9 per cent of our roots that we used to live outdoors and not have roofs over our heads. We’re in incredibly uncharted territory, putting people in developments and highly dense cities. It’s the rise of the mega city. That’s why Shoalts thinks millions of people all over the world instinctively find going out in nature a refreshing, relaxing experience.
Shoalts set out to write light-hearted adventure books full of humour, but at the end of each, he passionately speaks about the value of natural places and their importance to the Earth. He finds great value in unplugging, even if it’s just for 15 minutes. It’s essential to get outside and get some fresh air. Not everyone needs to make a three-month journey, but experiencing nature as much as possible is an integral part of life. It helps people de-stress. We’re overwhelmed by the 9-to-5 grind, always on social media and connected to the 24/7 news cycle, too busy to stop and look around. The world we live in is new; it’s essential to get outside and experience it.
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