[at-l] all things considered

[spiriteagle99 at hotmail.com (Jim and/or Ginny Owen)]

Kelly Whitman wrote:
>Cool, I thought it wouldn't be kosher to take a radio on the trail at all;
>I'd only be interested in using it at night with headphones at a very low
>volume while in camp.


Kelly -
I wouldn't object to you carrying a radio on the trail - but I'd object to 
"me" carrying one.  As you can tell - this is a "different" viewpoint.  
Neither Ginny nor I have ever carried one.  Nor are we likely ever to do so. 
  So -why don't I do it- or recommend it?

Well - for starters, many people use them to hike with.  One of the problems 
with that is that you don't hear the wildlife - and for some of us, that's 
one of the things we're out there for.  More than that - the wildlife DOES 
hear you.  No matter how low you keep the volume - if you can hear it, so 
can a bear at 300 yards.  And then some people wonder why they never see 
wildlife.

Not hearing the wildlife can have another negative side - on the AT, you 
"might" run across a rattlesnake every once in a while.  How well are you 
gonna hear that snake if you're listening to the radio - or CD player - or 
whatever?  Now admittedly, there aren't a whole lot of rattlesnakes left on 
the AT anymore - most of them have been killed off.  But then - Ginny saw at 
least four of them last time she thruhiked the AT.  Funny thing is that the 
"loud" ones were the first to go - so the ones that are left are the "quiet" 
ones <VBG>

On other trails it's different - on the CDT, there are no snakes - but on 
the PCT, we saw bunches of them.  I wouldn't want to hike southern 
California with my ears plugged into anything but the trail.  And if we'd 
been listening to a radio, we'd never have seen the herd of several hundred 
elk on Snow Mesa - or the herd near San Juan Pass - cause they'd have heard 
us comning - and been long gone before we got there.  Oh - you think they 
wouldn't hear your little radio?  Uh huh - sure - why do you think they have 
those big ears?  <VBG>

Anyway - the main reason we don't use a radio - is because when we go hiking 
- we just don't WANT to know what's happening in the "world".  We don't need 
to know who's doing what to whom - or what the politicains are beating each 
other up about - or how many people the Palestiinians or Afghans or Iraquis 
or Liberians are killing.  If it's important, we'll find out soon enough.

Oh - you say you'll miss your music?  Really?  Hmmm -

Let me tell you about "my" music.  Sometimes we camp near a stream - have 
you ever listened to the music of a stream?  Have you ever heard the 
constant bass of the cavitation through the rocks, with the voices in the 
background singing tunes that you can never quite catch the words to?   
Sometimes your symphony will be punctuated by the cry of an owl.  If you're 
lucky - very lucky, you might hear the scream of a hunting bobcat.

And if you stay in shelters, you can be entertained by the scurrying of the 
mice through the shelter rafters - or maybe watch them as they 
singlemindedly go after your food bag.  Or maybe you'll hear the music of 
the soft swishing steps of the skunks as they're chasing the mice.  <G>

I know - some people think "hiking" is boring.  Well - why don't they go 
home then?  I've never found hiking to be boring - did you know there's a 
rhythm to walking?  And it produces its own music --- the swish of  
clothing, the creak of the pack, the slap of a boot on the ground - the 
scraping of the vegetation as you go by.  And then it starts raining - and 
there's the tap, tap of the rain on your hood and pack.  And when it rains 
harder there's the hiss of the rain through the woods, and the sploosh, 
schloop of your boots hitting the water and then sucking their way out of 
the mud.  Did you know that there are different sounds made by different 
kinds of rain?  Have you heard the soft susurrant sliding of wet snow off 
the conifers - or the hiss of softly falling sleet?  How about the eerie cry 
of the loons in Maine?  Or the constant singing of the warblers all the way 
up the AT? LOL!!! Even the sometimes constant irritation of the Whipoorwills 
is music to me.

On the PCT one day we followed a herd of cows for 5 miles - and laughed as 
we listened to their panicked lowing.  Another day, we found 4 completely 
different kinds of rattlesnakes within 10 minutes.   Another day, we 
listened to the whistling of the marmots as we navigated through heavy fog 
and snow.

On the CDT, we were serenaded to sleep by the coyotes every night.  One 
night we listened to the  elk bugling on one side of the tent and the 
answering cries of the coyotes on the other side. Have you ever heard the 
cough of an angry deer - or the bark of a grizzly whose territory has been 
violated?  And it took us a while to identify the cry of the flocks of sand 
cranes in southern Montana.   I miss that music.

Four weeks ago tonight, deep in the night, the wolves were singing to me at 
a campsite on Mt Robson, after a couple mule deer had tiptoed through our 
camp.  And the next morning we were again berated by a marmot as we invaded 
his territory.

And I haven't even touched on the myriad sounds of the wind, have I?

That's "my" music, Kelly.  I don't need The Dead - or Britney - or Kenny 
Chesney - or Yoyo Ma when I'm on the trail.  No, I have a constant symphony 
of Mama Nature's sounds.  Sounds that most people never hear.  Sounds that 
some would blot out or ignore.  Sounds that, for me, make life worth living. 
  This is the music that "I" love.  And why I don't, and won't, carry 
artificial noise with me on the trail.

YMMV

Walk softly,
Jim

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