How do the men that use this site get their wives/gf to "allow" them to hike?

[Jim lombard]

I can hardly get my wife to take a walk around our neighborhood block let alone go into the woods

I'm really blessed to have met my wife on a hiking trip to Colorado in 2001. She loves to get out and enjoy the wilderness. We've been hiking together since we met, it's one of the things that ties us together. When we have kids we also plan on bringing them along. Hiking trips might be slower and milder in the future but at least we'll still be getting out there. In less than three months we'll be spending 6 days on Killimanjaro, a trip she has always dreamed of....me too!

 

[spongebob]

I have fine tuned the art of being un-dateable the past 34 years, so I have plenty of free time to hike. My fish is very unstanding as long as I keep feeding him.

 

[bobandgeri]

Like Danielle & Ryan, I am very lucky. Geri and I enjoy all the same interests, hiking being just one of them. Okay - so I like rock climibing more that she does, but she likes blading more than me :>

Cantdog had excellant advice - make a weekend of it so you can both do what you love during the day and enjoy each others company back at the campsite, hotel, condo, etc...

 

[brianW]

Get your kids into hiking. You take them along on a few day hikes, wife has a "day off" and then wam! she owes you a day without kids. It is completly fool proof!

I would 2nd what Mav said "Nothing cooler than enjoying the mountains and forest with your kids"

 

[MadRiver]

Here is what you do. Smoke cigarettes for 35+ years. After your wife pleads with you to quit, you say you will on one condition that you both have to hike the NH 48’s. After taking three summers to complete the list, she will be hooked on hiking. Problem solved.

 

[Puma concolor]

Funny little story on the whole hiking with kids topic. My 11 year-old is in a wheelchair so that's kind of out of the question (no, that's not the funny part.) But the battle for the heart and soul of our 20-month-old daughter has begun. I'm always talking about taking her hiking and trying to get her into the outdoors when she's old enough. About 2 weeks ago, my daughter and I were coloring at her little table with daddy drawing pictures of the mountains. Well, the following day when I came home from work, my wife had added a little caveat to the drawing. Right in the center of the page, she had drawn a sign with the words "Climbers beware." Somehow, I think I'm destined to lose this battle.

Anyway, as lucky as all you folks with hiking/climbing spouses are, I just want to throw in that us "Opposites attract" types are also lucky. I feel as though both our kids are growing up exposed to a wide variety of viewpoints ... and the conversation is never dull around our place although it is somewhat absent the phrase "I agree." Happy everything.

 

[jfb]

My wife is also more of a mall-walker than a hill-walker. Fortunately, I was prepared for that when I married her and don't mind heading off alone or with friends for a bit of hiking or climbing. In a way, I think going off solo allows me to be more selfish about doing exactly what I want without having to worry about pleasing someone else.

To answer the question of how to get "permission," I certainly don't go as often as I did before marriage and I usually hike within an hour's drive of home so (for example) we can have a breakfast together, I can go hiking and return home for dinner. As long as she has her plans for the day, she doesn't miss me. For overnight trips, I'll typically take a Thursday and Friday off from work and be back home on Saturday so we can still spend part of the weekend doing things together. She doesn't miss me as much on workdays.

 

[TomEske]

I've been married 26 years (so has my wife). Our first date was a hike. I proposed to her on a hike in Harriman. As newlyweds we hiked and cross country skied together a lot.
Times have changed and she has no interest in it now, and does her walking on our road with neighbor ladies. She has some physical issues that prevent her from hiking in the backcountry. However, I do take my son(14) with me when he is in the mood and that helps a bit.
Another thing that seems to work for us is I try to sit down with her occaisionally and find out what she is doing in the coming weeks, then I work my hike(s) around her schedule and ask her in advance if those dates are ok with her. She is willing to give me the time as long as it fits in with the family schedule and she knows in advance.
Another point is that at my age (49) the doctor is constatnly spouting off about the need to exercise regularly, and she acknowledges that this is important. I think she wants to keep me, but I don't know why.
Happy Hiking,
Tom

 

[twigeater]

I had a boyfriend who hated hiking and backpacking. He had a sailboat, so we'd backpack/camp a few times a year (with him complaining the entire time) then we'd sail all summer - every weekend and every vacation.
I enjoyed sailing, but thought we should trade off occasionally (i.e. compromise) but he didn't want to.

So I started going off by myself. A few years of that and I tired of pretending I didn't mind, and we split after almost 15 years. Since then I've been having too much fun doing whatever I darn well please!

I know everyone is different, but I'm not interested in trying to get someone to like the things I do, I'd rather they already did to start with. less risk!

 

[Raymond]

How old are your children?

I met my wife when she asked me if I knew anything about camping. In the next ten years, we never camped once, and our longest hike together was probably to Angel Falls and back, about two miles round trip.

Just after our son's fourth birthday, while she was at work, I took Cameron up to Mount Monadnock and we climbed it together. We did a few more mountains that September; Watatic, North Pack, and Crotched. In October the three of us took a trip to Vermont to look at covered bridges. In November I took Cam up to Pinkham Notch after showing him some of my old slides and he said that he wanted to see the mountains.

Just after New Year's, 1996, I moved out (her decision). No, it wasn't attributable to my hiking, which I hadn't done much of at all. We were divorced later that year.

The next two Mays Cam and I went up to Maine to hike. In the meantime, I met Susan, who was willing to do just about anything to spend time with me. She had hardly hiked at all in her life, now she's climbed 74 Northeast 4000-footers and she's just three ascents shy of completing the Adirondack 46. Cam has 37/30 under his belt. Susan and I can get away while Cam is in school.

Susan has asthma, though, so she can't hike in the winter. I'd like to try it, but not so much that I want to leave her behind to go do it.

You have to decide if your children are old enough to take along, if that's a possible solution, or how selfish you want to be if it's not. As Ann Landers used to say, are you better with her or without her?

 

[MichaelJ]

As long as I'm not gone for more than 4 days in a row, the cats are fine with my hiking. I'd rather not be single; I know she's out there somewhere, and she hikes, but she hasn't found me yet (and of course with me off in the mountains every weekend I'm not making it very easy).

 

[Jaytrek57]

Planning.

As long as my wife and I give each other a proper amount of time everything seems to work out. We keep a 12 month calendar on a wall for this purpose...overboard?..yeah probably...but it has helped us at least avoid confusion.

We both enjoy hiking/backpacking but she is more into extended trips (NPs) and doesn't hit the Whites/Mass AT as often as I.

 

[Jasonst]

I don't know about you guys but I don't think I would want to hike EVERY trip with my wife, even if she enjoyed my passion for hiking. Let's be real, sometimes it's nice to be alone. To you women who insist on hiking with your boyfriends / husbands every time out, give em a break, even if they lie and say they want you to come...

By the way, I haven't mastered the balancing act yet either but my wife is great as long as I don't push the limits...

 

[Neil]

My number one hiking partner is my 15 year old son. Prior (2 years ago) to me taking him hiking he gave my wife and I plenty of cause for concern. The effect that hiking has had on him has been like water on a parched plant. So, lucky me, I get nothing but encouragement when it comes to going hiking. The moral of the story: if your wife perceives your hobbey as being beneficial to the family then there's your ticket.

P.S. This summer my son and I are going to the Canadian Rockies for 2 weeks of scrambling.

 

[trailbiscuit]

Hey Jasonst,
It's a good thing you're not married to my wife, because you'd get a Leki upside the head!

But seriously, I've done a couple trips without the missus, and they've been different, not bad or worse, but different. But, then again, those trips have always been winter and involved skiing something that shouldn't be skied by rationally thinking humans. She's not into that. But, I do like backpacking with her in the summer months because I can fiegn some type of injury and put more weight in her pack!

 

[shadowcat]

Must be Tough

I can't imagine having a partner that didn't hike, mt bike - love to do the same things as me - he's my #1 partner!. We e-chat all week while at work, watching the weather, determining where we are going to go & what we are going to do that weekend. We don't have kids so I can't speak about how that might affect things & i'm sure it does. All I know is if I was ever without him, I would have to find someone who loved to hike no bones about it. And, when something new comes up to try we usually end up trying it together & end up feeling the same about it. (except this winter- I wanted to learn to ice climb. I loved it, he can live without it.) So I don't know what will happen next winter. He's the type that would rather go along but if not, that's ok - He still has things he does that I don't partake in like his cross-country mt bike racing. Gives us some time to ourselves. After reading some of the reviews it does remind me of how lucky I am to be with someone who shares my love of the outdoors along with all the other things we have in common. Oh and Jason I don't have to "insist" on hiking with him!

 

[Danielle]

Shadowcat,
I'm with you. I don't "insist" either.
-Danielle

 

[Jasonst]

OK girls, don't get all sensitive - that was said purely in jest!

 

[trailbiscuit]

No insisting, but you do whack me upside the head with a Leki!

 

[shadowcat]

"insisting"

don't worry jason i wasn't upset - i got the smily face! where is your picture from - it awesome.