How non-hikers look at hikers

[TDawg]

"The most dangerous part of my hikes is the ride up and back."

Thats exactly what I tell my parents (and everyone else!) when they worry about me hiking solo. Cheers.

 

[dr_wu002]

My non-hiking friends (basically co-workers) just don't even ask about what I'm doing... they just assume it's something too extreme and too rugged (I work with some real pansies) for them. And I don't bother explaining anyway, because they just wouldn't comprehend how extreme and rugged it actually is

Then when I show them pictures of me on some really beautiful places (ie. Bondcliff) they get jealous and ask me to invite them next time... but they won't come

To one of my co-workers, "camping" means sitting inside a huge tent in a campground with his buddies playing video games - all to get away from the wives

We all have our thresholds of "wilderness".

Best thing I find is to just not talk about it. I don't want anyone, especially people whom I work with, to know anything about me so I keep the hiking stuff relatively quiet. When they ask how my weekend was I just say, "lousy" and if they ask if I went hiking, I say "No."

-Dr. Wu

 

[Maddy]

Best thing I find is to just not talk about it. I don't want anyone, especially people whom I work with, to know anything about me so I keep the hiking stuff relatively quiet. When they ask how my weekend was I just say, "lousy" and if they ask if I went hiking, I say "No."

-Dr. Wu

I absolutely LOVE your statement. Over time I learned the same lesson. (I was a slow learner).
I often thought that the definition of insanity applied here:"Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result". There is no explanation you can give to the mall rats/cruise crowd that will change how they think and feel about the very thing that I love so much and consumes a big part of my life. Even with my injuries I continue to read mountaineering books, buy gear, and look forward to new adventures in the not to distant (I hope) future.
The just cannot relate and never will.
Just this summer, I had a disastrous weekend mid a two week stay at Ricker Pond, VT. I made the ghastly mistake of inviting a peer that I camped and hiked with many years ago to come up for the weekend. It was a disaster. If you want to eat all day, drink yourself into oblivion at night, and complain about work when you're not chewing, this is the way to go. I couldn't take it anymore and I finally strongly recommended to her that she sign up for an Outward Bound course (or some other serious outdoor adventure) so she could possibly have a prayer of enjoying life again. We haven't spoken since. Not a great loss. I realized I was in trouble when she brought me up to see the Lincoln with the keyless entry! Different strokes for different folks!
I am SO GRATEFEUL that I found VFTT.
I have my coffee with all of you each day and check in frequently to see the updates. I thoroughly enjoy all the input, the discussions, the education, and the wonderful trip reports and pics. We might not always agree but we do seem to at least agree to disagree and what better opportunity to learn from each other. It's an adventure all it's own and what more could we ask for than to spend time with like minded folks.
Yes indeed! The non-hikers all think I'm a very sad case living with two big dogs and meandering woods and dale but we all know better! I feel so blessed to have all of this. I don't ever want to forget to be grateful.
Happy trails!

 

[DougPaul]

Best thing I find is to just not talk about it. I don't want anyone, especially people whom I work with, to know anything about me so I keep the hiking stuff relatively quiet. When they ask how my weekend was I just say, "lousy" and if they ask if I went hiking, I say "No."

Where did you go?
Out.

What did you do?
Nothing.


Doug

 

[marty]

I am SO GRATEFUL that I found VFTT.

Yeah, that's it in a nutshell. It doesn't matter what non-hikers think, but I am damn glad to find so many hiking fanatics like me!

 

[grouseking]

I'll tell them everything. bwahahaha

Their fault they asked the question. I could really care less if people hate my hobby. I prob hate their hobby too, so it doesn't matter.

But I love asking...what did you do this weekend, and having someone say:
"Well, Saturday I woke up at 11:30am or so, rolled out of bed at 2, and finally got outside after dark. I went to Barnes and Noble. That was Saturday. Sunday I woke up just in time for afternoon football. What did you do?"

And I respond:

"Well, I got up at 5 am, headed into the White Mtns and hiked Mt Pierce in blinding snow and subzero temperatures. I had summited before you woke up, and finished before you left the house. Wanna see the pics?"

They have no choice but to look at them...all of them. Either they're genuinely interested or will never ever ask me what I did again.

grouseking

 

[Grumpy]

I suspect a lot of us hikers (me included, maybe) like to think non-hikers view us as “peculiar” or “odd” or (best yet) “inscrutable.” We like to imagine they think hiking is inherently dangerous. See, all that makes us special in some way -- deep as the ocean, romantically daring, tough as nails, ready for anything.

Unluckily (for me), most of my non-hiking friends and acquaintances don’t tip their hands as to how they view hikers. Except one.

She and her family hiked with Mrs. Grumpy and me once upon a time, long ago, on a trip in to Lake Colden, in the Adirondacks, where we camped and spent a few days climbing the surrounding mountains. My friend thinks I’m a nut case because I not only didn’t mind but seemed to enjoy getting grubby and sleeping in Adirondack leantos. She did not like those aspects of the trip.

The rest of my friends and acquaintances seem tolerant to indifferent. Some ooh and aah at pictures and tales I share with (force on) them, with varying degrees of sincerity, and then are perfectly happy to move on to another topic. Of course, I behave the same way when they trot out their Disney World photos or regale me with tales of their trips to Vegas.

Many of my best friends are fellow members of our community band. They are the best audience for hiking tales, perhaps because as enthusiastic amateur musicians who play wind instruments and bang on drums and play Sousa marches they know what it is like to be regarded as odballs.

One of the goofiest things about all of this is that being rather roly-poly in shape, I occasionally have a hard time convincing new acquaintances that I’m a hiker in the first place. I don’t know what they expect a hiker to look like, but evidently it is not -- as somebody described my figger long ago -- “stubby bod and chunkers.” So I spend some time dealing with the question, “do you really do that?”

“Yeah, I really do. And I’m deep as the ocean, daring as all get-out, tough as nails and ready for anything. An all around heroically romantic character if ever there were one, when it comes right down to cases.”

I wish.

G.

 

[Mongoose]

I find most people DO understand that hiking in the summer is enjoyable, even though they don't hike. I have a lot of people asking me for photos even though they never go into the outdoors themselves. It's the winter stuff they can't understand, which I enjoy better than the summer!

 

[UNFROZENCAVEMAN]

And there's enjoyment in simply making people think.

 

[dr_wu002]

Where did you go?
Out.

What did you do?
Nothing.


Doug

Especially when you bushwhack. How are you going to explain that to any sane person? My wife tried once to explain it to some friends by saying it's like "walking through hedge for hours."

This especially applies when you bushwhack with Eric and simply end up in some horrible drainage before calling it quits

-Dr. Wu

 

[CrisisBill]

Most of my friends think I’m nuts for going off into the dark scary woods for days, sometimes weeks at a time. They always ask “Don’t you get scared in the woods, what about all the wild animals”
They don’t understand why I would give up a nice warm bed in the cold of Jan for a winter camping trip in the Catskills or Adirondacks, my wife can’t understand why or how I can hike for miles and miles and still smile at days end. Now my wife is no “Cream-Puff” she is an Iron Man, having swam 2.4 miles, then biked 112 miles and topping it off with a nice 26 mile run; and she calls me nuts? Now I have started to do Triathlons and found it a nice tune-up for my hiking.
I have attempted to take my wife or friends hiking or camping but after a short walk in the woods they ask “Are We Done Yet?” and to me we haven’t even started yet. So I guess I’m stuck doing “Solo’s”.

 

[dentonfabrics]

Most of the people I work with look at me like I'm from Mars when I tell them of my hikes. One of them thought hiking was a "cult" activity.

 

[DougPaul]

One of them thought hiking was a "cult" activity.

You mean it's not???

We have:
* several cults of 4Kers
* cult of 3Kers
* cult of 100 highest
* redline cults
* Telemark ski cult
etc...


Doug

 

[David Metsky]

* Telemark ski cult

We're long past cult status...

 

[Artex]

Best thing I find is to just not talk about it. I don't want anyone, especially people whom I work with, to know anything about me so I keep the hiking stuff relatively quiet. When they ask how my weekend was I just say, "lousy" and if they ask if I went hiking, I say "No."

-Dr. Wu

Ditto, to a degree. The comments do get tiresome after a while, and keeping quiet is best. Heck, some people on this board even get upset if I post about some of the hikes that I do.

If you get inner joy and satisfaction from what you're doing, no need to give the narrow-minded a chance to spoil it.

 

[Mad Townie]

Why do we do what we do?

If you want a really serious mountaineer's examination of that question, I just finished an amazingly good autobiography by David Roberts: "On the Ridge Between Life and Death: A Climbing Life Reexamined." Roberts is now 63. By the age of 22 he had witnessed 4 climbing deaths, 2 of them being his climbing partners. (The other 2 were at Pinnacle Gully in Huntington Ravine.) He did many first ascents in Alaska, and he's an excellent writer. He discusses at one point responses to the question from non-climbers, "Why?"

Although I don't climb (and certainly don't write!) at anything that's even within view of his level, I found the book really hit home in a lot of ways. I heartily recommend it to anyone who loves the mountains.

"Some of the worst moments of my life have taken place in the mountains. . . . But nowhere else on earth, not even in the harbors of reciprocal love, have I felt pure happiness take hold of me and shake me like a puppy, compelling me, and the conspirators I had arrived there with, to stand on some perch of rock or snow, the uncertain struggle below us, and bawl our pagan vaunts to the very sky. It was worth it then." Roberts, supra, at page 336.

 

[RoySwkr]

I consider it fortunate that most people don't like hiking. What would the woods be like if everybody went?

Most people even in NH know from nothing about the northern part of the state much less hiking. I had a photo of a diesel train at the Crawford House and my former boss (one of the smartest people I know) asked if it was the cog railway. I am happy to answer questions about hiking but don't see it as my mission to either convert the heathen or understand their favorite activities. I often ask a few questions if I'm curious (such as asking my boss about fantasy football) but if I wanted to be in the majority I would have to move to Mumbai and speak Chinese.

The only problem comes when you must interface with the rest of the world. I knew a guy who wouldn't take his kids winter hiking because he thought it would go against him in custody disputes. (He did go himself which the court also might have thought made him batty.)

 

[trailbiscuit]

I knew a guy who wouldn't take his kids winter hiking because he thought it would go against him in custody disputes.

It's really hard for me to post a comment about that that is fit for public consumption.

 

[Danielle]

My initial thought when I first saw this thread was to respond that you should try thru-hiking (Of course, Trailbiscuit beat me to it and already commented on this...)! We certainly had TONS of people thinking we were crazy for that one But on the other hand, even some of our non-hiking friends who would never join us on a hike, seemed to understand that it was important for us to go out into the woods for 6 months (well, it turned out to be 4 months...but anyway), and they supported us even if they didn't understand.

The way I see it is that there are always going to be people out there who don't understand you and whom you don't understand in return. I mean, why would I want to spend a weekend watching TV, going to Target and shopping if I could be out in the woods?! But hey, if we were all the same, the world would be a boring place! And if we all liked the same things and wanted to sweat and suffer and be cold and bug-bitten and lug everything around on their back, the woods and trails would be full of people... And then there would be no solitude for those of us "crazies"

 

[AntlerPeak]

I knew a guy who wouldn't take his kids winter hiking because he thought it would go against him in custody disputes. (He did go himself which the court also might have thought made him batty.)

Roy your friend may have been intuitive with that as I know through work, "a state who should not be named", actually accepted a child abuse report and investigated a guy who had taken his kids hiking during a summer rain.