Johnson said that “The Hikers” was inspired by a trip he'd taken years ago in Aspen, Colorado, where he was hiking in the scenic Rocky Mountains. On his hike, Johnson was confronted with an isolating reality: “I was the only Black person around,” the artist mused. This led Johnson to ponder the significance of this isolation, and to imagine what it would be like to run into someone who looked like him. What would it mean to encounter someone who shared his same sensibility in a place he didn't expect?  

Johnson's work often deals with doubles and mirroring—many of his paintings and photos have repeated faces and figures, and several literal mirrors are hung throughout “A Poem for Deep Thinkers.” In “The Hikers,” Schreier (who has been a Princess Grace Awardee and was a Choreographer in Residence at Atlanta Ballet, among other accolades) plays with Johnson's doubles motif through slow, repeated, and mirroring movement. The hikers faced in towards one another and moved in unison with languid reaches. They touched and exchanged weight in arabesque lifts and gentle partnered leaps. 

Eventually, they met center and removed their masks. For Johnson, this act of recognition is a sort of falling in love, and to Orraca-Tetteh's lush score, the hikers embarked on a fleeting romance. 

In “The Hikers” film from 2019, this intimacy is generally captured through close up. The camera zooms in on single glistening limbs, and the dancers' faces, once revealed beneath the masks, fill up the screen in profile, sparkling in the sunlight. Additionally, the dancers in the film are onsite, surrounded by and hidden within majestic green and white mountains, both magnifying the miraculous encounter of love and recognition while also creating a sense of privacy.