Does anybody remember when ......

[bandana4me]

As I was doing my normal routine this morning (taking my puppy for his Sunday hike). I was thinking about the some of the recent questions posted on these forums. During my thoughts on lists, peakbagging, and trail talk, I was thinking about when and why I started hiking.


What ever happened to the days when you wore a plastic garbage bag as a poncho?

When sterno ruled (even though it took an hour to warm the water)?

When there was no such thing as a "restricted use area"?

When the 4000' list did not include Galehead or Bondcliff?

When you stopped to talk to a hiker on the trail (here goes trouble) and they pulled out a fattie and you both partook in mother nature?

When the snowshoes were made out of wood?

When your buddy said "lets skip school and go hiking". You could care less whether it was a 4000' or not. It was hiking.

Now I look at hikers and their high tech equipment, and if you are not in the right apparel, you get lectured that you are not prepared.

When I stay at shelters, the caretaker comes over and tells me about the importance of leave no trace. This is a hard pill to swallow when you have been practicing leave only footprints longer than he has lived!


Now it is a contest to see how fast you can complete the lists,and which list is next (including red lining).

Is it so bad to just go for hike, without lists, talking or peak bagging?

I must be just getting grumpy in my old age.

 

[sardog1]

I must be just getting grumpy in my old age.

Sorry to contradict, but:

1. You're not grumpy, you're spot on.
2. You're not in your old age until you surrender to the rest of them who are. And it has nothing to do with chronology, it's a psychological infirmity that they suffer from.

 

[Rik]

Does anyone remember when no one cared about WHY someone else was out for a hike?

 

[Grumpy]

Please be careful how you use my name!

Yes, I do remember the “good old days,” including the time when most backcountry water was considered potable. When there were leanto shelters at primo spots like Indian Falls and The Plateau in the Adirondacks. When rangers were rangers and not police officers. When people actually greeted others they met on the trail. Etc.

Those are good memories of pleasant times.

Things have changed some. I’ve adjusted some. Every hike these days expands my collection of good memories of pleasant times, though. That’s been the constant.

G.

 

[Pig Pen]

As I was doing my normal routine this morning (taking my puppy for his Sunday hike). I was thinking about the some of the recent questions posted on these forums. During my thoughts on lists, peakbagging, and trail talk, I was thinking about when and why I started hiking.


What ever happened to the days when you wore a plastic garbage bag as a poncho?

When sterno ruled (even though it took an hour to warm the water)?

When there was no such thing as a "restricted use area"?

When the 4000' list did not include Galehead or Bondcliff?

When you stopped to talk to a hiker on the trail (here goes trouble) and they pulled out a fattie and you both partook in mother nature?

When the snowshoes were made out of wood?

When your buddy said "lets skip school and go hiking". You could care less whether it was a 4000' or not. It was hiking.

Now I look at hikers and their high tech equipment, and if you are not in the right apparel, you get lectured that you are not prepared.

When I stay at shelters, the caretaker comes over and tells me about the importance of leave no trace. This is a hard pill to swallow when you have been practicing leave only footprints longer than he has lived!


Now it is a contest to see how fast you can complete the lists,and which list is next (including red lining).

Is it so bad to just go for hike, without lists, talking or peak bagging?

I must be just getting grumpy in my old age.

Plastic garbage bags don't breath

The new stoves boil a liter of water in 4 minutes

Not much garbage in the woods any more

Galehead and Bondcliff were finally properly surveyed

"Fatties" are bad for my lungs

Wooden snowshoes are too heavy and they don't grip

Truancy is not necessarily a good thing

I love goretex and polypro!

See garbage comment above, does it hurt to reiterate things?

I love peakbagging!

The list gives me a big set of options.

Yep, you're getting grumpy (apologies to Grumpy)

 

[Oldsmores]

When hanging a bag kept your food safe from bears...
When you kept a sierra cup on your belt and just dipped in a stream for a cold drink...
Sno Bird lean-to...
Being able to park at The Garden on a Saturday morning in the summer...
Campfires...
Not even thinking about whether you should leave your gear in a lean-to all day while you hiked...
Not worrying about whether the people already at the lean-to would hassle you for wanting to share it...

 

[Neil]

Why as a matter of fact I do remember wooden snowshoes and leather mocassins. The snowshoes used to fall off at the worst moments until I found a bomb-proof leather harness. My clothes were made of wool, leather and cotton. It didn't matter if the fire spit sparks and made little holes in my clothing. Imagine that today with my GoLite Phantom jacket or my 3ply gore-tex Sentinel pants . My Petzl headlamp had a 4.5 volt battery that went on the back of my head and an incandescent bulb.

I could easily go back to those days because I still have all of that stuff sitting in a trunk. I'm sure it is just as effective now as it was then. But I like the present just fine.

(Btw, thumbs up on Rik.)

 

[giggy]

I am 35 and started hiking at 23, so I am used to good gear.

However, I was in the army from 18 to 22 and used most of the crap you describe - I thought it was garbage then and still do.

If you needed surgery and your surgeon was going use gear from the 1960's to perform the operation - how does that sound? Some might say that surgeon was unprepared

just kidding around here.

 

[Neil]

If you needed surgery and your surgeon was going use gear from the 1960's to perform the operation - how does that sound?

I don't need a GPS and I don't need any of that there newfangled anesthesia.

How about 1960's dentistry?

 

[Grayjay]

In 40 years from now, imagine the scarey list.

When you didn't need a numbered pass to hike in the NF

When Guyot shelter was walk-in

When sunglasses amd sunscreen were optional

When there were a lot of black flies and mosquitos because the air was too clean

When Lyme's vaccination had been discontinued

When killer bees hadn't reached the Northeast

 

[skiguy]

I remeber the old stuff which some of it I still use along with the new stuff...Just don't make me give up my Easter Seal headlamp with the Lithium D batterey or my ritual can of SPAM.

 

[sli74]

I only remember a time when I wore a garbage bag as a poncho and that was because I was a broke student who had yet to figure out if I was going to hike long enough to justify real gear. The rest . . . no I don't remember. I started hiking about 14 years ago and I hope when I am old and fiesty I will still remember to hike my own hike and allow others to hike theirs.
Just my $0.02

sli74

 

[Barbarossa]

If it makes you feel better, I ate a can of Underwood chicken spread & a Toblerone for dinner, slept in an MVP Sports bargain sleeping bag, then wore a cheap, nylon windbreaker purchased at Caldor's on the ridge the next morning.

 

[Mad Townie]

OK, OK, OK.

Does anybody remember:

Rucksacks?
Mess kits (the scout ones)?
Hiking in mouse boots? (and you thought your Limmers were heavy!)
Trenching your tent?
Headlamp made of a 3" plastic and metal reflector with wires to one of those old plastic cigarette boxes (with a blister for your pack of matches) that contained a couple C cells?
Skis that were not differentiated between cross country and downhill? (You just skied across the fields to the hills!)
Cooking in an old coffee can over a fire?

BTW, I still own a pair of wood and rawhide snowshoes. They're not for the rocks, but I love to use them in the woods.

 

[eddie]

Yeah, I have some memories of my old stuff too...

Waffle Stompers, white-gas stove, canvas backpack, heavy sleeping bag, blue jeans, cotton tees and socks, the Boy scout mess kit, army canteen, no camera or GPS or cell phone, no internet blogs to "scout" the trails at home. But you know, it was as fun then as it is now. But I'll take the new equipment anytime.