The all day walk
A whole day given to it, on foot and outdoors.
It starts at a trailhead, where people arrive and nothing begins until a prayer has been made over the day. Then everyone walks.
The sacrament is huachuma, received at the start, in the open air. It comes on slowly, and the morning goes on opening.
The walking is ordinary walking, a few miles spread over a long day, with stops that run as long as they need to. The country does most of the work. People stay in sight of one another and nobody is hurried.
Prayers are made through the day, for the people walking and for people at home who asked to be prayed for. A drum goes along, and a flute. They get played where it is right to play them.
A full day on foot, in whatever weather that day brings. The temperature can move forty degrees between the start of a day and the middle of the afternoon, and more than that in the high country near Prescott. Water is carried, and a great deal of it.
The mountains are the point. The tradition this comes from holds that the high ground is where prayers are made, so the day stays outside, whatever the weather does.
It ends with prayer again, and then the walk back down.
On some occasions the gathering is a fire instead of a walk, tended through the night until morning.
