Headed South-wick: Teacher Backpacks for Anxiety Relief

When snow begins to melt and the air gets warmer, physics teacher Nathan Southwick stuffs a big fluffy blanket into his backpacking backpack until it weighs 5 to 10 pounds. He then hooks his two dogs, Boston Terriers El Dubb Dubb and Padunkle, to leashes and treks through Johnson County, training for future backpacking trips on Kansas and Missouri trails such as Ha Ha Tonka and Elk River.

Southwick continues to stuff hand weights, pillows and full bottles of water into the pack until he reaches a maximum weight of 30 pounds — the typical weight of his backpack when backpacking. Once he is comfortable with the weight of the pack, Southwick will begin to plan his first backpacking trip of the year.

After Southwick’s girlfriend Sara Pittman spent years convincing him to go backpacking, he finally agreed in 2016 after enjoying a car-camping trip to the South Dakota Badlands and Black Hills and wanting to take it to the next level. They signed up for a beginners backpacking course through Sierra Club — a national outdoor volunteer organization for hiking and backpacking.

“I just fell in love with [backpacking] immediately,” Southwick said. “My girlfriend and I and a bunch of new-to-backpacking people [were on the trip]. It’s a lot of fun to have a group of people because you can sit around the campfire, tell stories, share food — there’s a lot of comradery you build up.”

Since then, the two have been on solo trips and led others through trips in Kansas and Missouri, and although planning trips, constantly packing and repacking, foreseeing potential storms and thinking about the raccoons or wild boars that can snuff through his dehydrated dinners often causes anxiety for Southwick, most of those nerves calm once he steps out onto the dirt trail.

“I’m usually taking photographs and [identifying] flora and fauna, [Southwick] is usually way ahead scoping out stuff — he just seems really happy when we are out on the trail,” Pittman said. “[Backpacking is] especially exciting when you can watch a bald eagle fish…eat some wild blackberries, soak in a natural hot spring. It can also be a great self esteem builder knowing that you can be self sufficient.”

Since the initial Sierra Club trip, Southwick and Pittman have gone through training to become hiking and backpacking Outing Leaders for Sierra Club. He shows newcomers how to set up camp as he was years ago when he didn’t know how to hang a bear bag, filter water or quickly set up a tent.

“When [the participants] show up they have no idea what’s happening, they’ve never looked at a map, don’t know how much water to take,” Southwick said. “You have to hand feed them this information because they really just want to go out and have a good time so they don’t want to think about all the details.”

To help overcome anxiety that can sometimes arise from being responsible for these new backpackers, Southwick says he just puts his head down and continues along the trail, eventually settling into a rhythm of steps which clears his head.

“Trying to turn [anxiety] into a challenge mindset instead of a Oh-My-God-everything’s-burning-I-need-to-get-out mindset helps,” Southwick said. “So a lot of planning, meditation, being mindful while I’m out there and letting everything just pass by. But the days leading up to a trip, I am really worked up about planning.”

Because Southwick gets anxious before leaving for a trip, he meticulously plans in order to be more prepared and calms his nerves — often spending six to eight hours mapping out a route and making a safety plan with the quickest exits, nearest hospitals and phone numbers of the sheriff’s department for Sierra Club trips in the event of any injuries. Sometimes he prepares too much — over packing and carrying enough Nalgenes of water to survive in the desert.

Sophomore Katie Reda in Southwick’s physical science class says Southwick is one of the few teachers that shares with the class his interests by talking about his weekend trips and including extra credit test questions over his dogs names or trips he’s been on. Reda believes this creates a unique connection between Southwick and the class.

“I went backpacking in Michigan for a few weeks and it was actually really cool,” Reda said. “So it’s interesting to hear Southwick talk about his experiences backpacking because I feel like I can kind of relate to it, which is unusual for my teachers and I feel like it makes his classroom feel less like a school atmosphere.”

Southwick discusses experiences — like walking silently under a pine tree on a bed of fallen needles and accessing places only a limited number of people have the opportunity to see — with his classes because this passion has led to backpacking becoming a type of meditation for Southwick.

He believes the endorphins that result from exercising and being unable to access his computer and work while on the trails allows the stressors of “normal life” to disappear.

“[Backpacking] soothes me and makes me more able to deal with the stresses of teaching,” Southwick said. “It takes a lot out of you to teach so getting out there and even just hiking in the woods when it’s quiet and there’s no other people around, it’s really refreshing and definitely helps with the anxiety.”