SherpaKroto
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crazymama said:
That's it - exactly!
Motivation
- Thread starter Mr. X
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That's it - exactly!
Head
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Warren
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Many have mentioned thoughts that echo mine in many ways....
...but there's something else there... I'm not sure how to describe it, the motivation goes so far back... the brightest images of my childhood are all of the thrill of wandering, seeing somewhere new...
....the thrill of exploring a new neighborhood- my parents had just let me bike beyond a certain street. My friends and I, we called it "the new development" and biked it over and over, explored every wooded lot as if we were the first to tread these suburban street special only because we hadn't been there before... going somewhere new on a vacation knowing there would be somewhere to walk I had never walked before... seeing smugglers notch for the first time, part of a young family of vactioners, blaze orange frame packs everywhere, someone rockclimbing, a wide inviting trailhead and failing to convince my parents to go up there, knowing that someday I'd be back...a new beach with new dunes and fishing holes to find and explore... places where the rocks were different than where I came from..walking a beach after a hurricane littered with purple disks of marooned jellyfish all polka dots on the beach. I've always wanted to walk and wander a new place.
Among the worse that could happen to me is to have been everywhere...
The reboot, picking up a natural rhythm, self reliance, that living for real feeling, exercise are all just (wonderful) side effects to me.
...but there's something else there... I'm not sure how to describe it, the motivation goes so far back... the brightest images of my childhood are all of the thrill of wandering, seeing somewhere new...
....the thrill of exploring a new neighborhood- my parents had just let me bike beyond a certain street. My friends and I, we called it "the new development" and biked it over and over, explored every wooded lot as if we were the first to tread these suburban street special only because we hadn't been there before... going somewhere new on a vacation knowing there would be somewhere to walk I had never walked before... seeing smugglers notch for the first time, part of a young family of vactioners, blaze orange frame packs everywhere, someone rockclimbing, a wide inviting trailhead and failing to convince my parents to go up there, knowing that someday I'd be back...a new beach with new dunes and fishing holes to find and explore... places where the rocks were different than where I came from..walking a beach after a hurricane littered with purple disks of marooned jellyfish all polka dots on the beach. I've always wanted to walk and wander a new place.
Among the worse that could happen to me is to have been everywhere...
The reboot, picking up a natural rhythm, self reliance, that living for real feeling, exercise are all just (wonderful) side effects to me.
TomEske
Member
Well met and well said Warren. For me, it is the same.
Have a great weekend, can't wait to see that picture of you in a skirt!
Tom
Have a great weekend, can't wait to see that picture of you in a skirt!
Tom
The mix is better than the ingredients!!!!
For me it's the combination of the outdoors, the exercise, and the problem solving aspects of navigation or technical climbing that provides the special experience.
Think about it like this:
Walking a treadmill is exercise, but not as enjoyable as hiking.
Driving you car to the top of Whiteface puts you on the top - but its not the same feeling as when you climbed it.
Being lost in the city is a problem, navigating a trailess peak is an adventure.
KZ
For me it's the combination of the outdoors, the exercise, and the problem solving aspects of navigation or technical climbing that provides the special experience.
Think about it like this:
Walking a treadmill is exercise, but not as enjoyable as hiking.
Driving you car to the top of Whiteface puts you on the top - but its not the same feeling as when you climbed it.
Being lost in the city is a problem, navigating a trailess peak is an adventure.
KZ
Nadine
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Nice post Warren.
Mark Driscoll
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I do not know what it is, but something just pulls me. I know I feel much better after a hike, I treat people I know a little nicer. But I do not think about these things until the hike is over. I just go up and hike.
Mark
Mark
This is what I wrote on a similar topic ("Hiking as a Spiritual Journey") on the AMC boards back in December 2003.
First and foremost, I will say that I am constantly amazed by the magnificence of nature. Being out in the wilderness is a powerful, moving experience. The raw beauty of the world, be it mountains or trees, lakes or streams, is something to behold, and is made more magnificent by not just seeing it, but being able to got out and be a part of it. We are such a tiny fraction of humanity who will ever see the stars above or the world below from a summit, a forest, a lake.
Beyond that, however, I hike because it is a part of my life that I enjoy without bounds. It is a part that a good friend helped me to find, but which I then was able to make my own. To do my own solo trips, to go on group trips and meet all of you wonderful people, it's something I've made on my own. Five years ago I had just undergone a complete change in direction in my life, and wasn't sure just what I wanted to do with it. I found the answer when I put on a backpack, and every moment that I am on the trail I am reminded and reinforced that this experience is something I wove out out of the people and places around me. Dammit I'm not that fat, unhealthy kid any more; I'm miles in, thousands of feet up, have many pounds on my back, and am full of joy.
That's my motivation.
First and foremost, I will say that I am constantly amazed by the magnificence of nature. Being out in the wilderness is a powerful, moving experience. The raw beauty of the world, be it mountains or trees, lakes or streams, is something to behold, and is made more magnificent by not just seeing it, but being able to got out and be a part of it. We are such a tiny fraction of humanity who will ever see the stars above or the world below from a summit, a forest, a lake.
Beyond that, however, I hike because it is a part of my life that I enjoy without bounds. It is a part that a good friend helped me to find, but which I then was able to make my own. To do my own solo trips, to go on group trips and meet all of you wonderful people, it's something I've made on my own. Five years ago I had just undergone a complete change in direction in my life, and wasn't sure just what I wanted to do with it. I found the answer when I put on a backpack, and every moment that I am on the trail I am reminded and reinforced that this experience is something I wove out out of the people and places around me. Dammit I'm not that fat, unhealthy kid any more; I'm miles in, thousands of feet up, have many pounds on my back, and am full of joy.
That's my motivation.
Warren
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TomEske said:
You know Tom, you're beginning to make me feel uncomfortable. I mean you you're married, right? What would you're wife safe if she found it?
Nadine- Thanks.
TomEske
Member
Sorry Warren, apparently you misunderstood my intentions. I certainly didn't want to make you feel uncomfortable.
Should the aforementioned photo have been created, I would have shown the picture to my wife, so she could see who it was that I hiked the Wittneberg with. Besides we were talking about a spray skirt, right? I mean if, er, you were wearing some other type of skirt I really don't think I'd want to know about it.
See you in the hills,
Tom
Should the aforementioned photo have been created, I would have shown the picture to my wife, so she could see who it was that I hiked the Wittneberg with. Besides we were talking about a spray skirt, right? I mean if, er, you were wearing some other type of skirt I really don't think I'd want to know about it.
See you in the hills,
Tom
Doc McPeak
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mountains=
spider solo
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For myself I could not deny there is a good dose of escapism thrown into the mix.
I think that over the years the ratio of escaping the "advances of our civilization" as it is known to us becomes increasing tantalizing
...a lure to the days we may never have known.........
I think that over the years the ratio of escaping the "advances of our civilization" as it is known to us becomes increasing tantalizing
...a lure to the days we may never have known.........
BrentD22
New member
For me hiking is a form of therapy.
1- It's much cheaper than a therapist.
2- No doubt I love the risk factor. Kind of a balance... I am very experianced so now it is not much of a "risk" although accidents happen to even the most prepared and experianced.
3- After completing what I set out to do (i.e. hike up Adams and get back home) I feel like I've accompished something. Helps with selfastim.
4- In past posts I've talked about how I hike almost always solo. I do this do to a lack of hiking partners and I also do it because I enjoy being alone for a couple of days. Knowing that if I get lost, hurt, or something else I have to figure a way out! Doing this alone again helps my selfastim. It also helps with my problem solving and decision making.
5- Obvisouly the views, and the outdoors makes all of the above possile!
6- I try to always read about identifying trees, skat, flowers, birds, or other life in the woods the night before I go out. So I guess you could say this helps with my knowledge.
In my belief hiking and backpacking help to make all of us well rounded people. There is not too many things (if any) that you could call bad about our hobbie, sport, of lifestyle (which every you wish to call it).
The following are in no order I only numbered them for easy reading.
1- It's much cheaper than a therapist.
2- No doubt I love the risk factor. Kind of a balance... I am very experianced so now it is not much of a "risk" although accidents happen to even the most prepared and experianced.
3- After completing what I set out to do (i.e. hike up Adams and get back home) I feel like I've accompished something. Helps with selfastim.
4- In past posts I've talked about how I hike almost always solo. I do this do to a lack of hiking partners and I also do it because I enjoy being alone for a couple of days. Knowing that if I get lost, hurt, or something else I have to figure a way out! Doing this alone again helps my selfastim. It also helps with my problem solving and decision making.
5- Obvisouly the views, and the outdoors makes all of the above possile!
6- I try to always read about identifying trees, skat, flowers, birds, or other life in the woods the night before I go out. So I guess you could say this helps with my knowledge.
In my belief hiking and backpacking help to make all of us well rounded people. There is not too many things (if any) that you could call bad about our hobbie, sport, of lifestyle (which every you wish to call it).
The following are in no order I only numbered them for easy reading.
markmtn
New member
because it feels "right."
iceNsnow
New member
Gotta go with Mark S.' response!
I finally got around to reading this thread and since it isn't often easy for me to put my thoughts into words, I will just say DITTO to Mark S.' response.
I finally got around to reading this thread and since it isn't often easy for me to put my thoughts into words, I will just say DITTO to Mark S.' response.
Mad Townie
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I hike because being out there lets me feel in ways I can't feel anywhere else. It's different at different places, in different seasons, with different company (including just my own), and doing different things, but no matter the context it's a special feeling that I don't find anywhere else. That's why I hike. It's also why I fish, hunt, climb, paddle, ski.
Now if only I can find a way to do more of each!
Now if only I can find a way to do more of each!
Nadine
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Nicely stated, Mad Townie
Periwinkle
Active member
I just got around to reading this thread. Wow. Very enligthening. Somehow I must have assumed that the rest of the hiking community was just focused on the physical act of hiking (not that it's such a bad thing). I'm duly impressed....
I share many of the same thoughts, but started hiking again to be alone. I'm just one of those people that requires serious amounts of solitude or I start getting a little rough around the edges.
What I re-discovered in the process were very fond memories of my first hikes with my friend's family. My people are true city-folk. I didn't appreciate the woods until I went to Maine as a teenager. And for a high-maintenance little chick, I was fascinated by the appeal of the outdoors. I found that again as I ventured further out after moving to NH several years ago.
As I've gained ability and confidence, I've developed a new motivating factor: empowerment. I do this. Little ol' me. It's more than a sense of accomplishment. It's a sense of self.
On the lighter side, I thought hiking would be a great way to shed those few extra pounds that have crept up on me in the past few years. Not! I now have enormous quads and calves. I suppose I should be happy that at least it all doesn't jiggle.
I share many of the same thoughts, but started hiking again to be alone. I'm just one of those people that requires serious amounts of solitude or I start getting a little rough around the edges.
What I re-discovered in the process were very fond memories of my first hikes with my friend's family. My people are true city-folk. I didn't appreciate the woods until I went to Maine as a teenager. And for a high-maintenance little chick, I was fascinated by the appeal of the outdoors. I found that again as I ventured further out after moving to NH several years ago.
As I've gained ability and confidence, I've developed a new motivating factor: empowerment. I do this. Little ol' me. It's more than a sense of accomplishment. It's a sense of self.
On the lighter side, I thought hiking would be a great way to shed those few extra pounds that have crept up on me in the past few years. Not! I now have enormous quads and calves. I suppose I should be happy that at least it all doesn't jiggle.
