Hiking is less fun in the internet age

[JoshandBaron]

Or hike to someplace that isn't a summit like like a lake or pond.

I've been slowly working my way through Steve Smith's Lakes and Ponds book and have found this to be much more rewarding than the traditional lists. I'm pretty unmotivated to get to the Whites lately, as well, and picking a random pond I haven't been to yet when I get stuck usually fixes that. Views of the mountains are just as nice as the views from them.

 

[Mike P.]

I've been slowly working my way through Steve Smith's Lakes and Ponds book and have found this to be much more rewarding than the traditional lists. I'm pretty unmotivated to get to the Whites lately, as well, and picking a random pond I haven't been to yet when I get stuck usually fixes that. Views of the mountains are just as nice as the views from them.

That's true, the views from Lonesome Lake, 13th Lake (ADK), Unknown Pond up at the Horn, Chimney Pond, Elk Lake, Round Pond & Lake Tear of the Clouds are great. I miss Marcy Pond although I still take the picture when I'm on what's left of the dam. Even the popular ones are not too crowded provide they are not right on the road like Chapel Pond or the Cascade Lakes.Then there are the lakes and ponds on the Allagash, including another Round Pond.

The one thing I have found with ponds is that the taller grass around ponds tends to hold more ticks as you can't avoid the vegetation while being in the center of established trails may keep you from touching any plant life.

 

[Tom Rankin]

https://www.nhmountainhiking.com/hike/lists/listless.html

Wow, thanks!

 

[Mike P.]

Wouldn't a state's top ten list be counted as a list? Certainly Everett, the 8th highest peak in MA is not a place to go on a weekend for peace and quiet. Apparently, you can hike any where in CT also as CT and RI didn't even make the New England section of the list. BTW, Bear Mt is not a place to go for solitude either. I have the list of top ten CT and MA peaks, I believe it's in the AT Guide for CT & MA.

I don't hike in VT much but as Ethan Allen is over 3600 Ft and near Camel's Hump, I've been as well as Hunger which if VT had a 52 WAV, it certainly would be on the list, it's in the VT's Day Hike book.

 

[hikerbrian]

Lots to think about here, especially:
Bushwhacking. While I'm not overly fond of crashing through the really thick stuff, I do REALLY enjoy navigating by map and compass. Combined with the process of pouring over maps in advance, this could be quite fun and interesting. One question - any tips for avoiding spruce-thicket-hell? Can you predict nasty areas by looking at a map?
A new hobby. A very good friend of mine has been pushing me to join her on a MITA tour. Checks a lot of boxes. It's very strange to think about focusing on anything other than hiking-related activities. But maybe it's time to broaden the horizons.
Birding. My wife and I lived in this fantastic loft apartment in the sticks of eastern CT for several years, and we had the MOST amazing birds you can imagine. We bought a book and some really nice binoculars, and we systematically checked off the visitors. Over time, we both became quite adept at knowing, just by the shape and mannerisms of the birds either in flight or at rest, whether it was a new bird or one we already knew. It was surprisingly exciting! And learning the songs and calls - towhees, cardinals, wrens (in the early morning, ugh), robins (in the evening), purple finches, gold finches, Baltimore orioles, catbirds, and the countless others that have distinctive calls - these still provide tremendous comfort and joy, and you don't even need to see them! But the variety at that loft was unreal: waxwings, crossbills, redpolls, kinglets, a gazillion different warblers, literally every New England woodpecker, tanagers, grosbeaks...the list goes on. So, yes on birding.
Ponds and lakes. I just ordered the Steve Smith book, thanks so much JoshandBaron for the recommendation! Water features are right up there with good views for me in terms of places I like to end up.
Redlining. I've always had a soft spot for doing things in a way that most people don't. How do you check off Monroe? Via the Dry River Wilderness, obviously.

Thank you all for your thoughtful responses. In addition to the above, I'm really happy to read all the different ways people spend their time in the woods. Wardsgirl, I love your style. And I'm never joining you! I believe there is fun yet to be had in the Whites, even if that looks a little bit different for me than it has for the past 35 years.

 

[Nessmuk]

Lots to think about here, especially:
Bushwhacking. While I'm not overly fond of crashing through the really thick stuff, I do REALLY enjoy navigating by map and compass. Combined with the process of pouring over maps in advance, this could be quite fun and interesting. One question - any tips for avoiding spruce-thicket-hell? Can you predict nasty areas by looking at a map?

Of course you can. Not always, but this is part of map study and experience, fun to learn. Look for lowlands where water may accumulate, especially in areas known to be inhabited by beavers. Avoid intermittent streams with little slope or gradient in the area where they begin or terminate in low or flat beaver prone areas. Stick to the almost always nearby sloped topography.

In my area (western Adirondacks) there are many ancient and ghost skidder logging roads (mapped or not) that may look tempting for travel routes. More often than not, the previously open roadways are great places for overgrown thickly spaced saplings and thorny briars to grow in the open direct sunlight. If I choose to follow these, it is usually easier to walk several yards parallel off to one side, rather than "in the road".

 

[peakbagger]

There was a VFTT hiker, Onehappyhiker? that used to post his off trail excursions, I never asked but suspect he just looked for open ledges and talus fields on aerial photos or google earth and then found a way to get there. There was also the couple who went to all the existing and former NH fire tower sites including many obscure ones. I knew one person who searched for elusive USGS benchmarks down in the valleys away from the summits.

My observation is many folks complain about the loss of adventure and then proceed to download a GPS track to follow on their next hike. I realize the temptation goes back to human nature tested in the Stanford marshmallow experiment over immediate versus delayed gratification but IMO my level of gratification increases on how the journey was conducted versus reaching the destination. I got some crap several years ago stating that folks doing bushwhacks to untrailed summits following someone else's GPS tracks should have an asterisk on their certificate and have not changed my opinion. If someone wants or needs a "crutch" as a backup plan that is their prerogative and I respect that but once its switches to "follow the beep" I lose respect on their ability. I and another VFTT member one time joined a group for a winter conditions bushwhack and we both were embarrassed to find that the group we joined were pretty clueless on off trail travel and rather depended on "following the beep" right to the edge of cliffband which would have been obvious if they looked at the topo. The group was stalled clueless until us outsiders came up with a solution. The leader is a well respected AMC member and one time VFTT member but even 10 to 15 years later when I see the name I wonder how many shortcuts were taken on the latest adventure. I do use GPS for chasing boundary disks on the Maine AT as I am there to monitor the boundary not go out for a recreational hike and I am expected to carry one to report my coordinates so I do.

Might be time for folks to find a copy of the Waterman's Wilderness Ethics: Preserving the Spirit of the Wilderness book 1st published in 1992 as there is discussion about how carrying and using technology can degrade other peoples experience and this predates GPS and cell phone technology.

In the meantime there are still many rarely visited places in the whites, you just may not see trip reports. A general speculation is the farther north and east you get away from the areas that can be easily dayhiked from Mass or southern NH the more chances of finding rarely visited places. Heck, I run into many folks over the years that have not even been to the Pond of Safety and it can be driven to (worth throwing a canoe on the car) although the loop from Randolph Hill road is a fine way to see RMC's trail building skills.

 

[Mike P.]

Guilty, although I do know which AMC Guide Map Pond of Safety is on. OTOH, if just going in the woods, we have those here too.

 

[hikerbrian]

My observation is many folks complain about the loss of adventure and then proceed to download a GPS track to follow on their next hike.

Truth! I now carry a GPS on hikes where navigation could be a challenge, or where there are considerable consequences of losing the trail (when I'm hiking in the winter with my boys, for example). But I find 'following the beep' to generally suck. The exception to that rule is above treeline in the Presi's in winter in low visibility. I spent a fair amount of time up there pre-GPS, but I will say pulling out a map and taking a bearing in heavy wind with no landmarks at all in fading light and dropping temps - well, I don't need to do that too many more times in this lifetime. Interestingly, a good friend of mine just finished a masters in Outdoor Leadership or some such thing, and part of the graduation requirements were to do an extended group backpack in some faraway location. They went to the Balkans. Very undeveloped. Not many real trails. But my friend's description of the days was, "Wake up, have breakfast, turn on the phone, load Gaia, follow the track, eat dinner, go to bed." He was not a fan, and I don't think I would have been either. Still, having the GPS along in the top of the pack - I like that reassurance. Looking for open ledges and such via Google Earth is also a very good idea.

Re: stuff north and east of the Whites: a friend and I stayed at Mollidgewock a couple of years ago and did some kayaking and hiking in the area. It was fabulous. But it's a long drive for me, and I have a harder time just driving up without having some confidence I'll end up someplace I like. I guess that's why the Presi ravines are still working for me - I know they're great spots. Still, the Cohos trail (someone mentioned below) has a lot of appeal. That one seems to still be fairly off the radar.

 

[Nessmuk]

I have never put as much stock in actually reaching a remote bushwhack location as I have in the process of actually using my own brain and developing the skill of getting there using traditional methods. I do have a GPS, several of them as a matter of fact, necessary tools for SAR, and as a land nav training instructor for NYS homeland security classes and as a NYS SAR crew boss. I use GPS as the necessary tool that it is extensively for those purposes. To become a DEC certified SAR crew boss you must confidently demonstrate how to use M&C and GPS (separately and together) proficiently without question.

But kids these days and their reliance on devices... I also am part of an 8-day certification program for BSA wilderness trek guides in the Adirondacks. They (typically of college age) desire to be hired for the summer and learn to be outdoor guides working out of BSA resident camps, taking troops and adult leaders on 5 day treks in the Adirondacks and elsewhere. During their field training, after a detailed training session using map and compass, I take my small trek group on an off-trail bushwhack excursion where I explicitly forbid use of GPS. I one time caught a student who was the designated leader at the time cheating by sneaking a look at a forbidden GPS. Failed him on the spot, no certification, no summer job. I don't care if the group "gets lost" trying to reach a given destination. There is no better way to learn than to make a few mistakes and then to figure out what happened in a post exercise discussion. Chances are those mistakes will not be made again.

 

[iAmKrzys]

For me a GPS was actually an enabler rather than degrader in my hiking experience.

A while back I did not have any friends who were bushwhacking, so I always stuck to trails. Then I got into geocaching, bought myself a hiking GPS and I went for a number of geocaches that required some degree of bushwhacking. This was new to me but after a while I got totally comfortable with the idea of going off trail. There was a time when my GPS was virtually glued to my hand, but I tend to look at it a lot less nowadays. As a matter of fact last winter when we went to Adirondacks I totally forgot to bring my GPS with me. Still I decided to do some winter geocaching to get some solitude in the woods. I had my cheap phone that did not have e-compass, so the geocaching app would not be fully functional and did not show me a direct line to the cache location - something that I typically would use for monitoring my progress. As I did not have a good map for the area and OpenStreetMap does not have all paths mapped for this section of the woods, I decided to bushwhack from cache to cache instead of guessing where the trails would take me. Towards the end of the day, I picked a direction to the next cache and started off meandering around many fallen logs but not checking my compass. After some 10 or 15 minutes I came to a path and I took a guess which way to turn. Another 10 or 15 minutes later I came to a trail intersection that I recognized and it was really close to where I started the bushwhack from! I made a full circle! I "self-rescued", and I'm glad I can confess this story myself rather than Nessmuk having another anecdote to relate here.

 

[psyculman]

The theme is "Is hiking less fun in the internet age". Hopefully the answer is yes. The "herd following" " social networking" "face booking" "Instagraming" people will move on to some other activities, and the motive of equalling or out doing the accomplishments of others will subside. There are plenty of places which are "undiscovered" with very little public hiking traffic in the Whites even in peak summer season.

 

[peakbagger]

The thing we all lack is historical context. The Whites were overrun during the backpacking boom of the late seventies/early eighties. This boom was fueled by the popular press as there was no world wide web where most people got their intro to going on line. Whenever I go to lesser used places I frequently find extensive evidence of campsites and overuse from 30 to 40 years ago. My early hiking days were the tail end of the boom. Places like Moriah Brook trail, rarely visited these days have spots along the gorge where the campsites may range out three or four hundred feet from the stream. The soils are all compacted in many spots so overusedspots are quite obvious. Any one using the fisherman's bushwhack from Franconia Falls to access Lincoln Brook trail will find many sites of similar vintage and there are any number of similar areas. The backcountry was actually more beat up then as now as there were far more backpackers then. Most came up for the weekend or longer stretches. The big difference was there was less emphasis on the lists.

 

[skiguy]

The big difference was there was less emphasis on the lists.

Which inherently is ironic. Please correct me if I am not historically correct. My recollection was the original 4000 footer list was created to disperse use. To answer the OP’s question. I do not think hiking is less fun but different within the Internet Age. Many good points have been made already so I will not rehash. But the common theme seems to be the perception of a diminished sense of adventure. What I say to that is up your game. Embrace new challenges and learn new skill sets. Hiking and a Climbing in New England is inherently fun and challenging but is also seen and used by many as a training ground for even more challenging quests.

 

[peakbagger]

You are correct, the 4K list was designed to get people to lesser used summits away from the standard summits. Overcrowding of popular summit trails is not a new issue. The first time I did Mt Washington in high school, I remember parking along RT 16 and being in an endless line up Tuckermans Ravine. Even when I was doing the 4Ks in the late 80s the even more remote 4Ks had minimal trampling. Places like North Trypyramid and East Osceola were just wide spots in the trail, now there are well trod down clearings.

 

[Grey J]

Interesting thread hikerbrian. To answer your initial question, the internet neither enhances nor diminishes my enjoyment of hiking or the mountains though it certainly makes it easier and faster to obtain information. I don't do any bushwhacking and I don't use a GPS. Since I (try to) stay on the trail most of the time, I rarely even need or use a compass although there's always one in my pack. I love paper maps and that's all I'm relying on except for the bigger map I'm carrying in my head from studying the paper one ahead of time. I guess that's pretty old school.

My relationship to NH is different from most of you as well. Although I grew up in New England, my annual trip to NH is more of a pilgrimage, (see my signature below) a return to a place with a great deal of meaning for me. The White Mountains are beautiful and even spiritual. As I get older, the prospect of planning next year's excursion takes on new meaning because always having one more hike to do and one more summit to climb at least implies or gives one the illusion of immortality. In the last few years since I finished the 48, I have loved exploring various NH 3000 footers without actually attempting to finish any more lists even as I use the lists to uncover the lesser known peaks. I'll keep going back every year and looking for new places to hike until I just can't do it anymore.

 

[sierra]

I've been out there for awhile. Got my first round done in 1982 and just kept hiking. The two issues that bother me today are crowds and the complete lack of comradery that a lot of hikers lack. In order to still hike and enjoy it, I've made two major adjustments. I do not hike where the crowds congregate. I used to average 5 ascents of the FRL a year. Haven't been on it in a few years. Secondly and this might strike people as odd, I have learned to insulate myself from what I see on the trails. I just ignore the trash, the loud obnoxious summits, the lack of skills and gear that is so obvious in many hikers. I just go about my business and continue to enjoy being out there. The one thing that has enriched my time in the backcountry is hiking with a dog. I always moved a lot and apartments were where I lived. Once I settled down, I realized a dog would fit my lifestyle. Total game changer for an introvert like me. I'm on my second dog now, Its fun working with him and training him. I'm transitioning to smaller peaks, many peaks out there, I ignored during my time on the 4ks. They are quiet and better for my aging knees anyway. Its funny, a 3 or 4 hour hike is more then enough now to make my day. I then just go exploring or swimming with my dog. I don't have to grind out 8 hours anymore to be fulfilled. In the back of my mind, I see a boat and a fishing rod and many new places to explore.

 

[Mike P.]

I have to figure out my next FRL, I've not been on the ridge in over 10 years other than a Lafayette trip with my son and two of his friends & that was back in 2011 or 2012. We stayed at the hut which is what we did then, on summit day the weather was wet & cool, saw nothing. Maybe some cold but clear and blustery weekday in the fall if I can swing it...

 

[sierra]

I have to figure out my next FRL, I've not been on the ridge in over 10 years other than a Lafayette trip with my son and two of his friends & that was back in 2011 or 2012. We stayed at the hut which is what we did then, on summit day the weather was wet & cool, saw nothing. Maybe some cold but clear and blustery weekday in the fall if I can swing it...

I've been thinking of a way to do it without the crowds. I've never hiked in the dark (on purpose). Thinking of starting around 300am, catching the sunrise on the ridge and being down by 830 or so, weekday for sure.

 

[peakbagger]

I ran into two groups coming down from Sunrise Hikes dow Old Bridal Path a few weekends ago.There are actually more folks than you may assume do night hikes.