Why Hike?? -- [Was: Re: [at-l] Watches on the Trail? And Nimblewill Nomad's Question]

[daveh at psknet.com (David Hicks)]

Well said your toeness.

Maybe we can agree to disagree about why and value the differences.

 ***** OLD TIMER ALERT *****

The rest of this rather long post is an update to a point I tried to make a 
number of times.  So, if you are an older member, you might want to hit delete 
now.



*****************************



I'm sure there are no "right" reasons why we hike.



Many of the things that I have done in life and that I still do others look at 
as insane.  You would not believe the folk who assume there is a catch or I am 
keeping something from them when I talk about trail maintaining.  "Why would 
anyone do that kind of labor for free?"  Generally, if someone ask, "Why?" I 
respond, "If you have to ask, you won't understand the answer."



All though not a thru-hiker; I have work on the trail for 40 some years.  I 
have section hiked about 1500+ mile of it, many of those same miles many 
times.



I know quite a few thru-hikers and long distant section hikers rather well and 
I have met hundreds.  Most of the long distant hikers that I have met over the 
years seem to fall on one or the other side of a point-of-view watershed.



Often reasons are discussed along lines similar to commune with nature vs.. 
the physical, mental, or whatever challenge.  Other terms such as belt 
notchers, success oriented, anal corporate types, vs. nomadic, spontaneous, 
whatever happens, so-called free spirit types. Terms like "purity" and "stunt" 
often come into play.



However, I suggest that it is a more a question of  "doing" vs. "being."



Some of the "doer's" are distant related, or maybe goal focused.  Some are 
purity driven.  Some are more internal personal goal focused -- finding of 
self, testing limits, redefining roles, easing life style changes, moving out 
of their comfort zone and facing their fears, etc.  Some approach communing 
with nature getting away from "it all" as a thing to "do."



The "be-er's are, OTOH, are being in the outdoors, walking..., enjoying..., or 
maybe getting in touch with something missing from urban/modern life.  To them 
it is the "being there" that is important, not what they are doing while 
there.



For me the trail is less doing and more being.  It is a lot about retreat and 
recreation (i.e., re-creation -- getting in touch with something missing from 
urban/modern life).



Admittedly, I am a section hiker (Usually 100+ miles at a clip.)  Moreover, I 
repeat sections w/o worrying about linking up sections.  So, my goal is not 
"doing" 2000+ miles, getting a patch, etc but rather being on the trail for 
this particular week trip, or this two month trip.



This watershed between "doing" (meeting the challenge, completing the trail, 
hiking "pure", seeking something, etc.) vs. "being" (enjoying being in the 
outdoors as it comes, walking day after day in rain, bugs, and sun, enjoying 
the fungi, flowers, birds, animals, rock formations, trees, and everything 
else that makes up the trail, escape and recreation) might be a distinction 
between many thru hikers and many serious section hikers, also.  However, I 
doubt it.  I have met plenty of mileage-challenged section hikers and day 
hikers, as well as many thru hikers who focus on "just being there."



So, the watershed is not between section hikers and day hikers, vs. thru 
hikers, but rather about the values, which make what ever hike you do "your 
hike" in the first place.    BTW, I think I see some undercurrent of this 
watershed in the literature, also.  NOLS uses terms like, "challenging outdoor 
pursuits."  OTOH Colin Fletcher uses terms like, "you leave yourself free to 
get on with important things -- watching cloud shadows race across a 
mountainside or passing the time of day with a hummingbird or discovering that 
a grasshopper eats grass like spaghetti or sitting on a peak and thinking of 
nothing at all except perhaps that it is a wonderful thing to sit on a peak 
and think of nothing at all."



I don't think this is a "my way or no way" issue.  I know that any serious 
"being" type hiker will, from time to time, have to deal with challenging 
aspects of his or her outdoor pursuits -- often fully unanticipated.  I 
suspect that most "mile-conscious goal-oriented, out-to-prove-something" type 
hikers will from time to time, get in touch with something missing from his or 
her other or pre-hike life  -- also, often fully unanticipated.  There will be 
some of both themes in each's hike.



Interestingly, many successful thru hikers are notably tongue-tied on "why" 
before, during and after their hike.  A goodly number were notably unprepared. 
Moreover, I've had a number tell me they had no idea what they were getting 
into when they started.  In general, however, they all know it is/was just 
something that they just "had to do" or "where they had to be."



I would suggest that someone planning a hike might want to start with a 
self-examination about why you are there. Why do you backpack?  Why are you 
planning/doing a thru hike?



If you are primarily a "doing" hiker, you might want do a reality check on 
what it is that you really want to do.  Have you the goal ordination / the 
will / drive / etc.?  to do it.  Or for that matter, do you understand what 
"it" really is?



If you are primarily a "being" hiker, are you really in love with being in the 
outdoors, walking day after day in rain, bugs, and sun, enjoying the fungi, 
flowers, birds, animals, rock formations, trees, and everything else that 
makes up the trail, escape and recreation, OR are you in love with the idea 
of..., or are you simply fascinated with (or fantasizing about) being 
(whatever)?



BTW -- If you are a "being"  hiker, you might want also do a reality check  on 
what it is that you really love.  You might want to dissect the whole 
package. [Note that the statement was, "enjoy being in the outdoors, walking 
day after day in rain, bugs, and sun, enjoying the fungi, flowers, birds, 
animals, rock formations, trees, AND EVERYTHING ELSE (emphasis added) that 
makes up the trail."]  I knew a trail maintainer who had planned to thru  hike 
when he retired.  However, during a few pre-retirement warm-up hikes he 
learned that 1) he was much too private to feel comfortable (much less enjoy) 
the "shelter scene," and 2) he really loved a hot shower and a bed at night. 
He fully enjoyed the rest of the package, but came to realize that long 
distant hiking was not for him.  So, for a number of years up to his death he 
spend 1000+ hours a year working on (and maybe a like amount walking on) some 
trail or the other.  Some folk who haven't retired yet should work as hard and 
get so much out of it.  In my book, he was as much of the trail community as 
any one -- yet he never claimed mileage.  Nor did he hike for the same reasons 
that I do.



So, for my 2c, I suggest that the first thing one should do is to learn what 
'Hike your own hike' really means for you.  Don't look to others to confirm 
that for you and don't insist that others march to the same drum that you do. 
If you are one of those hikers who are notably tongue-tied on "why" before, 
during and after their hike, that cool also.  Don't let other belittle your 
lack of whatever.



The trail itself  and the broader AT community, like  most large human 
endeavors, have lots of faces, cliques, etc.  [BTW, as we all know that is 
true of this site, also.]  To some degree hiking your own hike tends to get 
some of us emotional about our hike and how we feel about certain issues --  
they become our hike and our issues.  Attack them [my hike or my issues or 
even my friends] and you attack me.  In many ways, we are like a big 
amily  -- in that we may fight among ourselves, but let something. or 
somebody,  threaten us from the outside....  Well - ever seen someone try to 
step between two brothers that were fighting each other?



Try not to go there.  Don't try to hike the Trail on someone else's terms or 
expect them to hike on yours.  And neither expect everyone in this, or any, 
family to always agree with you, nor expect the family to be completely 
dysfunction-free.



Chainsaw



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Sloetoe" <sloetoe@yahoo.com>
To: <at-l@backcountry.net>; <indianaatclub@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Wednesday, August 10, 2005 3:18 PM
Subject: [at-l] Watches on the Trail? And Nimblewill Nomad's Question


>>
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"Why do
[we] hike?" with "I have no idea."
SNIP
<<