[at-l] Philosophy of hiking. (WAS: lots of other threads...)

[shane@theplacewithnoname.com (Shane Steinkamp)]

Having gotten myself into some push-pull with this topic I thought I'd try
again.  (Stubborn nature, I suppose...)

Since I've been on this list, I've seen two questions:  How did you get into
hiking, and why do you hike.  The natural evolution of that line of
questioning is, 'What is your philosophy of hiking?', which - I admit - may
be skating on the edge of a silly question.  Philosophy may be a poor word
choice.  'What is the (your) purpose of hiking?', may be a better question.

There seem to be several, however, which are borne out by recent posts:

> To which he said "no thru hiker with ever respect
> you, until you've
> done at least 1,000 miles."

Some have the philosophy of miles.

> I've hiked right at about 1,000 miles, so I
> guess you all respect me now,eh? LOL.

Which isn't shared by all.

Some hike for competitive reasons, either with others or with themselves.
Some hike for the joy of being outdoors.  I suppose there are other reasons
too.

Black&blue wrote "I struggle with folks who think that this needs to be
anything more than getting away from all the stuff that constitutes "normal"
life and taking a stroll in a woods or through the backcountry for a week, a
month or half a year.  That's a challenge in and of itself, whether or not
you have spectacular spills or thrills, near death experiences or anything
else along the way."

Which is excellent, and I agree with it.  It's the philosophy of 'getting
into nature' for the lack of a better term.

In my opinion, hiking IS NOT the sport of walking.  Really, if walking was
what you were after, you could walk around the park in your city or just get
a treadmill and put it in your living room.  You could challenge yourself
all you like, see how many miles you could do on the treadmill every day.
Really, though, I suspect that everyone reading this is horrified by that
idea.

So HIKING is in some way connected to the outdoors, and I suspect to
solitude in many cases.

Before I ramble on too far, what is your philosophy of hiking?  What is the
purpose, for you, of hiking?

To cover miles?  To say you did?  To experience the outdoors?

My purpose is to satisfy the creature in me that desires to revisit its
natural habitat.  Hiking is what gets me there, but not, for me, the purpose
or goal of my treks.

Shane