I’ve been watching a video of a man walking a long distance path in Colorado, USA. That path covers great distances in mountainous areas, and has probably been around for a long time.

The thing I noticed was that the path invariably goes through the mountains by crossing over The Pass Not The Peak.

A pass is the American term for the dip, the low point, between two mountains. It makes complete sense that a path created by travellers over the years takes the simplest, and easiest route possible. When you’re walking or riding in order to get from A to B, as part of your day to day existence, why make things even more difficult for yourself?

Here in Scotland, munro bagging has become a thing. Which basically means attempting to climb to the top of the 282 mountains in this country which rise above 3,000 feet, or roughly 1000 metres.

And there is a sense of wonder and awe to be gained from standing at the top of the world, and looking down on everything. I slept at the top of a munro a couple of years back, and it was all that and more.

We need those moments in life, and it is good to set time aside to head for those peaks. But in day to day life, to achieve the tasks and dreams we have set ourselves, it is undoubtedly wiser to take the simplest and most straightforward path possible.

It can be a tough enough journey, without trying to climb every possible summit on the way. And the memory of the mountains we do climb, will always stay with us on the long trail.