Waxing and Waning

[Tony]

Does anybody else have this experience: there have been many years of my life where I have hiked a lot (as in over 100 hikes a year). And then there is 2009. I don't know what's happening - work, family, STUFF - but even though the woods are calling, I haven't been able to get out there. Has this happened to anyone else? What's the longest break you took from hiking? Why did it happen? How did you get back in the mountains again?

- Tony

 

[Chip]

I'm working full time and in school part-time this year so weekends I catch up on school work, family and yard. The only outings I'm able to pull off are half day local climbs. I'm not too concerned; the "mountains will be there". The thing that I need to spend more time on confused: maybe extend my day to 5am to 11pm instead of the current 6am to 11pm) is a better daily exercise routine so that I'm able to get back out when I do get the time.

I didn't backpack or climb at all between the ages of 25 and 35.

 

[hikes-with-him]

I think that the biggest think is...LIFE.

As with anything "new" and addicting, at first, you do it any chance you get...you MAKE opportunites and people understand.

However, as time goes on, you see things that are not getting taken care of as they used to...and you step back and take a look at what you are doing. Work calls, the garden, the kids, the family...school and so many other things.

As this is our 1st hiking year...we get out and hike at least 1 - 2 times per month. Right now...3 weeks is the longest without hiking and it almost KILLED us. BUT...we are beginning to notice things being left undone. Unfortunately, living so far from any hiking (2 1/2 hrs to most of them), we can't get there as often as we'd like as it is an all day affair.

Oh well...I guess it is to make the times that you CAN get out and up there...really worth the wait.

 

[Little Rickie]

Gulity. I've slacked off this last year. Work, family stuff, new dog, Scouts take a lot of weekends, garden stuff...

I need to get out for mental health so I am doing at least a local hike every weekend for two hours or so and then do yard work. If I do yard work first then I don't get a hike in or even a walk in longer than taking the dog out.

Hiking makes a big difference in the shape I'm in. The treadmill is good but an irregular trail and hills are best.

I just baught orienteering maps for the permanent courses in Webster & Mendon ponds park, in Monroe County, Rochester New York, which are close to where I live. The trouble with local hikes is I get boared, hopefully this will help shake things up a bit.

I gotta get on the stick Rookie is almost at his ADK 46 and I'm stuck at 19.

 

[paul ron]

Haven't taken any time off from backpacking other than when my kids were too young. I have taken lazier trips to easier places n perhaps not as often in some years, mostly because of the kids. But once they got old enough, I had em in the woods with me as often as my wife let me.

 

[daxs]

I got divorced, went back to school and then needed to work 2 jobs to pay off all the debt I accumulated in school. I took about 5 years off from hiking. I did not have the time or the money.

 

[dentonfabrics]

NH Fish & Game kicked off a campaign this spring called "Take back the weekend" (or something like that) in an effort to get more people back in the woods (and to sell more licenses). They came up with tips like - do your yardwork in the early evening - and stuff like that. I dont know how effective the campaign was, if at all.

Thankfully this summer, I'm still able to make it up north a couple of days a week.

 

[Roxi]

Does anybody else have this experience: there have been many years of my life where I have hiked a lot (as in over 100 hikes a year). And then there is 2009. I don't know what's happening - work, family, STUFF - but even though the woods are calling, I haven't been able to get out there. Has this happened to anyone else? What's the longest break you took from hiking? Why did it happen? How did you get back in the mountains again?

2004 - bad relationship
2008 - house renovations and moving
2009 - recovering from a shoulder injury (result of 2008's activities ), just recently hiked the Pack Monadnocks and the Pumpelly Trail on Mount Monadnock...slowly getting back into it, working toward Mt. isolation in August.

 

[Adk_dib]

Work and a bad cold have kept me off the trails as much as I would have wanted. I am finding it harder and harder to finish my 46'er list. Every summer it is something else getting in the way, either a bad back or my dog tearing her ligaments the last 2 summers. I am find ing it more difficult to get going the older I get. It is not the hiking, but more of the getting up early and driving for 3-4 hours one way.

 

[Little Rickie]

Only 3-4 hrs. I'm 5.5.

I'm sitting at my desk right now with a hot pad on my lower back. I did a 10 miler a few weeks back and between that and garden work it's shot.

 

[J.Dub]

I just baught orienteering maps for the permanent courses in Webster & Mendon ponds park, in Monroe County, Rochester New York, which are close to where I live. The trouble with local hikes is I get boared, hopefully this will help shake things up a bit.

Orienteering is a blast -- I took the kids out for a meet yesterday morning, in lieu of going to church. (Lord, forgive me... ) We had to skip a couple CP's and cut the course short to get back home in time for my son's Little League game, but it was fun running around in da woods for a while.

One thing I still have a hard time with is the large scale/high detail of the O-maps. I'm so used to looking at 1:24K topo's (USGS and such) for hiking that the 1:10K or 1:7.5K O-maps throw me for a loop, and I often end up overrunning CP's by a fair distance when bushwhacking (not so much of a problem when following a trail, tho...)

 

[REK]

One thing I still have a hard time with is the large scale/high detail of the O-maps. I'm so used to looking at 1:24K topo's (USGS and such) for hiking that the 1:10K or 1:7.5K O-maps throw me for a loop, and I often end up overrunning CP's by a fair distance when bushwhacking (not so much of a problem when following a trail, tho...)

Scale change is wild until you get used to it! Go out with the maps when yur not running and concentrate on small terrain features, ie. contours, vegetation types, boulders. It will help shrink your "field of focus" I do this in Pawtuckaway when life keeps me close to home and not up country (so it's not a complete hijack!)
Bob