Clearly it has benefited me to do a fair bit of hiking during my years as a full-time RVer. It would have been easy to underestimate the pleasure of hiking and to get discouraged. I'm glad I didn't let that happen. Still, it would be nice if people who enjoy the sport even more than I do would divulge a few of their secrets and principles.
This would be far more helpful than the typical hiking blog post. Why even read the post if you already know what it is going to say: that they walked X miles and climbed Y feet along the Pioneer Trek trail; and that it took Z number of hours; and they walked to Emerald Lake, by way of Bridal Veil Falls; along the way there were some breathtakingly-beautiful wildflowers, sunsets, bunnies and Bambis, etc. Yawn.
Too harsh? Because 'the medium is the message,' the internet favors chirpy posts, globbed over with Photoshopped digital postcards. Must I throw in the sugar pill that 'there is nothing wrong with any of this?' But it is an opportunity missed. Trumpeting that opportunity is the theme of this post.
Walking for a practical purpose seems more natural and interesting to me than "normal" hiking, aimed at scenery and exercise. But that is another topic. Today let's restrict the topic to "what can make normal hiking more interesting?"
Why do some people enjoy hiking so much more than other people do? To many people, outdoor exercise is a dreary or uncomfortable thing that they probably 'should' do because it would be 'good for them.' I think that this is the first syndrome to avoid. We should learn to want to hike.
1. Start early in the day. When you are chilly, you do want to walk. You don't have to nag yourself into it. Hiking tends to be a hot sport. It is slow-moving, and the air feels dead.
2. Don't aim at long boring hikes. Steer towards short, intense ones. Duration is inherently boring and donkey-like. Intensity is stimulating.
The best way of avoiding getting sucked into long boring hikes is to avoid car-pooling. Go somewhere close, and drive yourself. When you are bored, turn around and go home.
3. Other people can be a source of fun on a hike, but a dog will be fun -- almost automatically. Obviously she must be off-leash to count as a wild and joyful canine. Study the dog. Let her infect you. Be more like her and less like a Camelbak-humped, bipedal beast-of-burden. A dog's enthusiasm is centered on being a predator. They are not interested in punishing themselves for being a few pounds overweight by hiking a certain number of dreary donkey-like miles.
See if you can adopt a predatory attitude towards what is out there. Hunting and fishing are more natural than typical, city-slickerish, Honda-CRV-driving hiking. But that would take us off onto another topic. Let's just say we need to find the 'moral equivalent' of hunting and fishing. Go off the trail. Get lost, get scared. Take a chance with the weather. Come back with manful boasts about what you did.
Finding a rare flower or rock, or sneaking up on wildlife -- and outsmarting them -- are other examples of thinking in a predatory way. So is nailing the perfect postcard. But wouldn't this contradict my usual disdain for postcards? Actually my objection is to mooning and swooning over beauty. It is too nambie-pambie. And beauty by itself doesn't make outings interesting.
4. Aim at trails that have a lot of contrast. Nothing could be more boring than claustrophobic hikes through an over-grown forest. Similarly I find a hike completely above treeline to be lunar and sterile.
The other day I was hiking along a ridge near Little Texas, CO. The forest would get thick and miserable for 15 minutes, and then I would pop out of it, off to distant views, and a cool breeze. This cycle of Agony and Ecstasy happened several times. It was glorious. You can find hikes like this at the lower treeline as well as the upper. This is frequently overlooked.
It is difficult but important to learn how to appreciate the positive side of Suffering.
5. Are you new to an area and having a hard time making a choice? Perhaps there are so many possibilities that you find yourself procrastinating and doing nothing. Then park at the bottom of a cell tower, and hike up its road. Many hikers think they need to be on an 18 inch wide, official, hiking trail. Not so. Roads sometimes provide more open views and faster walking.
There are many more techniques, and I truly wish that people who do more hiking than I do would explain what works better for them, and why! Don't just tell us What and Where -- we could get routine information of that type from the visitor's center.
This would be far more helpful than the typical hiking blog post. Why even read the post if you already know what it is going to say: that they walked X miles and climbed Y feet along the Pioneer Trek trail; and that it took Z number of hours; and they walked to Emerald Lake, by way of Bridal Veil Falls; along the way there were some breathtakingly-beautiful wildflowers, sunsets, bunnies and Bambis, etc. Yawn.
Too harsh? Because 'the medium is the message,' the internet favors chirpy posts, globbed over with Photoshopped digital postcards. Must I throw in the sugar pill that 'there is nothing wrong with any of this?' But it is an opportunity missed. Trumpeting that opportunity is the theme of this post.
Walking for a practical purpose seems more natural and interesting to me than "normal" hiking, aimed at scenery and exercise. But that is another topic. Today let's restrict the topic to "what can make normal hiking more interesting?"
Why do some people enjoy hiking so much more than other people do? To many people, outdoor exercise is a dreary or uncomfortable thing that they probably 'should' do because it would be 'good for them.' I think that this is the first syndrome to avoid. We should learn to want to hike.
1. Start early in the day. When you are chilly, you do want to walk. You don't have to nag yourself into it. Hiking tends to be a hot sport. It is slow-moving, and the air feels dead.
2. Don't aim at long boring hikes. Steer towards short, intense ones. Duration is inherently boring and donkey-like. Intensity is stimulating.
The best way of avoiding getting sucked into long boring hikes is to avoid car-pooling. Go somewhere close, and drive yourself. When you are bored, turn around and go home.
3. Other people can be a source of fun on a hike, but a dog will be fun -- almost automatically. Obviously she must be off-leash to count as a wild and joyful canine. Study the dog. Let her infect you. Be more like her and less like a Camelbak-humped, bipedal beast-of-burden. A dog's enthusiasm is centered on being a predator. They are not interested in punishing themselves for being a few pounds overweight by hiking a certain number of dreary donkey-like miles.
See if you can adopt a predatory attitude towards what is out there. Hunting and fishing are more natural than typical, city-slickerish, Honda-CRV-driving hiking. But that would take us off onto another topic. Let's just say we need to find the 'moral equivalent' of hunting and fishing. Go off the trail. Get lost, get scared. Take a chance with the weather. Come back with manful boasts about what you did.
Finding a rare flower or rock, or sneaking up on wildlife -- and outsmarting them -- are other examples of thinking in a predatory way. So is nailing the perfect postcard. But wouldn't this contradict my usual disdain for postcards? Actually my objection is to mooning and swooning over beauty. It is too nambie-pambie. And beauty by itself doesn't make outings interesting.
4. Aim at trails that have a lot of contrast. Nothing could be more boring than claustrophobic hikes through an over-grown forest. Similarly I find a hike completely above treeline to be lunar and sterile.
The other day I was hiking along a ridge near Little Texas, CO. The forest would get thick and miserable for 15 minutes, and then I would pop out of it, off to distant views, and a cool breeze. This cycle of Agony and Ecstasy happened several times. It was glorious. You can find hikes like this at the lower treeline as well as the upper. This is frequently overlooked.
 |
| Imagine a hiking trail laid out along this serried ridgeline. In and out of the forest gloom, in and out of the view and breeze. The hiker would be like the sun popping in and out of the puffy cumulus clouds. |
It is difficult but important to learn how to appreciate the positive side of Suffering.
5. Are you new to an area and having a hard time making a choice? Perhaps there are so many possibilities that you find yourself procrastinating and doing nothing. Then park at the bottom of a cell tower, and hike up its road. Many hikers think they need to be on an 18 inch wide, official, hiking trail. Not so. Roads sometimes provide more open views and faster walking.
There are many more techniques, and I truly wish that people who do more hiking than I do would explain what works better for them, and why! Don't just tell us What and Where -- we could get routine information of that type from the visitor's center.
Comments
Sorry about my penchant for "what and where" hiking posts. I'm somewhat of the opinion that the enjoyment is not something that can be verbalized. You either "get it" or you won't. At least not my type of hiking enjoyment. For sure, Type-A goal-setting is not a part of my joy. ;)
"Hiking tends to be a hot sport. It is slow-moving, and the air feels dead.
Don't aim at long boring hikes
Duration is inherently boring and donkey-like
avoiding getting sucked into long boring hikes
a hike completely above treeline to be lunar and sterile
avoid car-pooling
hiking a certain number of dreary donkey-like miles.
mooning and swooning over beauty. It is too nambie-pambie
beauty by itself doesn't makes outing interesting.
Nothing could be more boring than claustrophobic hikes through an over-grown forest
the typical hiking blog post. Why even read the post if you already know what it is going to say
along the way there were some breathtakingly-beautiful wildflowers, sunsets, bunnies and Bambis, etc. Yawn
chirpy posts, globbed over with Photoshopped digital postcards...is an opportunity missed"
The activity of Hiking is simply a way of taking one's daily exercise walk in a variety of settings, climates, and vegetation zones. Everyone is different (thank Gawd); we don't all see the world the way you see it. Most of us do not have to take a simple concept like "hiking" and solve it like some complicated equation. Movement (hiking) among other things, promotes elements of joy, health, challenge, achievement, and reward. When done with others, or a dog, their is a camaraderie aspect. All of these things are building blocks for happiness. Your negative approach to happiness and Life is sometimes amusing. But it's one of the reasons I keep reading…like, "What will the Boonster say today, whose toes will he step on." :))
No sport is perfect. The most positive and useful approach is to honestly face up to these difficulties and invent techniques for working around them.