[at-l] Negative stress on the trail...

[daveh at psknet.com (David Hicks)]

I, OTOH, am stressed when I don't have expectations of the coming 
trail/terrain.  I am a true mapaholic.  I love maps, not only when hiking, 
driving, etc.  As I sit here, I'm looking at a big wall National Geographic 
Society Map of the physical world, a political subdivision globe is to my 
left, book of maps is to the right of the keyboard, well over a hundred maps 
are in the bookcase behind me, and a number of rolled up maps (mostly 1:2400 & 
1:7200) are stacked in the corner beside the bookcase.  I even have gas 
company road maps from the '30s & '40s.  I love to lookup where roads used to 
be.

Before my wife & I travel abroad, I buy maps -- even when we are on a guided 
group trip, or a cruise, where I have no responsibility for navigation.  I 
even liked the required economic geography course in college.

Some folk like to look at pictures to reminisce on hikes.  I look at maps.

So my take on "expectations" is different.  True, I get stressed when hiking 
and the little bump that was anticipated turns into a 2 mile up with 4 or 5 
false summits.  Not because of the extra climb. Not because I had 
expectations.  But rather because the map I was using was not the scale I 
needed to have the correct expectations and as a result don't know what to 
expect.

OTOH, I have been places where there was no way to get a bearing (triple 
canopy), or where there was nothing to take a bearing on (desert hiking and 
sailing out of sight of land).  No problem.  What I was experiencing was what 
I expected -- endless green, tan, or blue.

There are lots of things in life that I am very comfortable with being 
extemporaneous, going with the flow, letting tomorrow take care of itself, 
etc.  Hiking w/o a weather radio is fine, with me.  Even when I carry one, I 
seldom check it in nice weather -- no need to know when they expect it to 
rain.  OTOH, if it is raining, I do tend to check it to see when they expect 
the rain to end.  I loved OB's totally unorganized SORUCK.  In fact, my 
expectations for most human activity is unpredictability, surprise, etc.

So, it is not a matter of control or predictability, but rather realistic 
expectations.  In some matters realistic expectations would be 
unpredictability, surprise, etc.  However, IMHO, realistic expectations for 
physical terrain can and should be rather predictable.

Chainsaw

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Shelly Hale" <shellydhale@earthlink.net>
To: <at-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
Sent: Tuesday, November 23, 2004 7:35 AM
Subject: [at-l] Negative stress on the trail...


SNIP
>>
2) Having expectations as to what the trail will be like for the day's 
hike.--Looking at the terrain maps are a sure way to build expectations of the 
coming trail. The little ups and downs on the maps are almost always either 
better or worse than thought. When the little bump that was anticipated turns 
into a 2 mile up with 4 or 5 false summits then the stress builds.
<<