Hiking

[kyjo]

Besides music, one of my primary interests is hiking (which ties in with my love of both traveling and nature). Even if it's just walking a local trail, I find hiking to be a thoroughly rejuvenating experience. It is really the only form of exercise I enjoy! Some of my favorite hiking locations include the Alleghany National Forest in northwestern PA and Washington state (I love the northwestern US). I've been longing to visit Shenandoah and Great Smoky Mountains National Parks for years, both of which have miles and miles of some of the most scenic trails in the eastern US. Also, I've been dreaming of hiking the Appalachian Trail someday, but that would require some serious training!

Any others share my love of hiking?

[Mirror Image]

When I was in Boy Scouts, I was forced, by my parents, to participate in the hiking/camping trips. I'll be honest with you, I hated every minute of it, but one reason I didn't enjoy myself had to be it seemed like every time we would get on the Appalachian Trail, it would rain on us!

Looking back now, I probably would have enjoyed myself a lot more had I been around people I actually got along with, but this was when I was 15 or 16 so I suppose my 'teenage angst' had gotten the better of me in those days. I wouldn't mind hiking now, but I would rather go with a woman, preferably a girlfriend, so there might be the possibility that I'll see her naked. I guess, even after all these years, I'm still a horny teenager.

[kyjo]

I wouldn't mind hiking now, but I would rather go with a woman, preferably a girlfriend, so there might be the possibility that I'll see her naked. I guess, even after all these years, I'm still a horny teenager.

I can relate to this!

.....but most women don't appreciate nature (or music, for that matter). I prefer to save the women for other times!

[Sammy]

I can relate to this!

.....but most women don't appreciate nature (or music, for that matter).

You need to spend some time with women who don't fit into your stereotypes.

[Brian]

.....but most women don't appreciate nature (or music, for that matter).

Oh now that's just plain fucking ridiculous. I really hope this is your idea of a joke.

I went on a 75-mile hike through the mountains of northern Spain with a (female!!) friend in July 2011, and it was one of the most awesome times I've ever had. The first three days we did 20 miles each, and then the last day we split in half to enjoy a wonderful country village we'd stumbled into.

Here's a rough guess of our route:



Here are just a couple photographs from my full blog post about the trip:







And here's a bonus blog post about the trail's food and our fellow hikers.

And, to help ward off any lingering elements of inexplicable misogyny, here is a bonus photo of the harbor at Fisterra:



It goes without saying that the cafes served delicious fish!

[Mirror Image]

.....but most women don't appreciate nature (or music, for that matter).

I don't agree with this at all, Kyle!!! I've known plenty of women who love nature and love to go hiking. I've also known plenty of women who love music.

[kyjo]

My god, I honestly don't know what came over me when I typed that exceedingly untrue generalization about women! Apologies to those I offended.

It just seems like a lot of the women I've been around take great pleasure in rushing to and fro and don't have time for "looking beneath the surface", if you will. Obviously, I need to get out more!

BTW Brian, those are some beautiful pictures. I'd love to visit Europe someday, especially Spain, Italy, France, and Austria.

[Brian]

It just seems like a lot of the women I've been around take great pleasure in rushing to and fro and don't have time for "looking beneath the surface", if you will. Obviously, I need to get out more!

Obviously you do, because that description baffles me.

BTW Brian, those are some beautiful pictures. I'd love to visit Europe someday, especially Spain, Italy, France, and Austria.

I've been to Spain twice (besides the trip above, a jaunt to Barcelona and Girona) and Austria once (Schruns); in August 2014 I'm going to make my first trip to France, including Paris and hopefully (!) a two-day-long hike across Provence from Arles to Avignon stopping at St Remy-de-Provence. There's a chance that I'll be in Sweden and Denmark in May, too, but we'll be kayaking, not hiking.

[Rinaldo]

I'm going to make my first trip to France, including Paris and hopefully (!) a two-day-long hike across Provence from Arles to Avignon stopping at St Remy-de-Provence.

Sounds lovely! I've spent two weeks bicycling through Provence and fell in love with that region.

But I prefer hiking so here's my contribution to this thread, courtesy of the Valais canton:

[SonicMan46]

My god, I honestly don't know what came over me when I typed that exceedingly untrue generalization about women! Apologies to those I offended.
It just seems like a lot of the women I've been around take great pleasure in rushing to and fro and don't have time for "looking beneath the surface", if you will. Obviously, I need to get out more!

Boy, LOL!    Nothing like trying to get out the frying pan and then jumping back into the fire!  I agree w/ Don (a.k.a. Sammy), i.e. you need to find the right woman for you?

Wife (Harpo here) & I live in Piedmont, North Carolina and travel 3-4x a year to the mountains and usually do some hiking there - NOW, we are seniors so over the years, our trails have decreased to 'easy' ones, especially for my spouse - she just cannot do the ups & downs, roots & rocks, etc. anymore.  But still enjoy walking the mountain routes and plenty are available, especially off the Blue Ridge Parkway.

I've got plenty of pics to post but one memorable area & an easy/medium hike is the Joyce Kilmer Memorial Forest located in the southwestern area of North Carolina - there is a lower & upper trail - the latter takes you around virgin forest poplar trees that are just magnificent - pic below of Harpo standing next to one of these LARGE trees - BOY, you could spend you life hiking in these mountains - Dave

 

[amw]

We call it "tramping" around these parts, apparently. There is a tramping club at my university which regularly runs various excursions and even has a few huts in various mountain areas (in New Zealand you're never far from mountains). It seems to be significantly female; some trips there's hardly a male to be seen. I suppose I should make some kind of sexist generalisation about that, does "men are too busy watching pornography and playing video games to appreciate the finer things in life" sound ridiculous enough? 

I like most things about the outdoors, actually, hiking/tramping included, but the main thing that seems to get me out of the house and dragging random people with me to far-flung forests off fifty-mile unsealed roads is waterfalls. There is a sizeable number of waterfalls in NZ, but due to (a) not having a car, (b) only having moved here pretty recently and (c) living pretty far from most of them I have seen only a few. The most recent of them, unnamed on maps but referred to as Waitakere Falls on the internet, is (at 95m height) one of the bigger waterfalls you're likely to find within 45 minutes of a major metropolitan area (at least when the dam above it is overflowing) -



Considering that, it seems a little strange that the track doesn't get any closer to it. Not that one needs a track to get places, I've done enough bushwhacking and butt-sliding in my time. >.> But considering the steepness of the canyon walls, the thickness of the bush and the fact that it would be a long, muddy slog back uphill from the base, in the rain (did I mention that it was raining? Because it was raining), we decided to save that for another day.

Wider view in context -



That was quite a fun track actually, followed a disused tramline that went through a tunnel and so forth. The +/- 100m elevation change is also quite easy by NZ standards, so I didn't even need boots, though I wouldn't necessarily recommend it for SonicMan & Harpo. Try Rainbow Falls near Brevard instead. >.>

[DavidW]

I can relate to this!

.....but most women don't appreciate nature (or music, for that matter). I prefer to save the women for other times!

For a second I thought was on Abe's thread!  So very stupid.

[Karl Henning]

Aye, where one makes the leap from "hiking with a girlfriend" to "maybe seeing her naked" . . . all those unused neurons . . . .

[AnthonyAthletic]

A thread about hiking, takes a mere 4 posts to mention Schnittke !

Do people like typing the word Schnittke, because it looks aesthetically cool?

I like the word Pickle or Tootsie Roll those are funny words.

Schnittke, Schnittke, wonder how many times the word Schnittke has been written these last months?

Its good to write Schnittke....come on everyone try it, you don't know what you are missing....Schnittke....yay 

[Karl Henning]

A thread about hiking, takes a mere 4 posts to mention Schnittke !

Do people like typing the word Schnittke, because it looks aesthetically cool?

I like the word Pickle or Tootsie Roll those are funny words.

Schnittke, Schnittke, wonder how many times the word Schnittke has been written these last months?

Its good to write Schnittke....come on everyone try it, you don't know what you are missing....Schnittke....yay 

Maybe it's time to point out what a really, really, really great composer, and overall genius, Stockhausen is?

[AnthonyAthletic]

Maybe it's time to point out what a really, really, really great composer, and overall genius, Stockhausen is?

Schnittke
Stockhausen

Schnittke rolls off the keyboard like a dream, wereas I get a slight lag pause on the ha when doing Stockhausen...

I am working on it.

[Karl Henning]

But if you keep saying it (Stockhausen, Stockhausen, Stockhausen, Stockhausen, Stockhausen) you can practically hear the helicopters!

[AnthonyAthletic]

But if you keep saying it (Stockhausen, Stockhausen, Stockhausen, Stockhausen, Stockhausen) you can practically hear the helicopters!

I can Karl, and do hear the helicopters.  Sometimes Sea Kings, Apache's, Huey's but mostly I hear the rasp of the Sikorsky's (they can lift a small house) and work well with quartets.

PS: I do like to hike, go for the odd stroll in the pleasant NW of England (getting back on topic)

Schnittke 

[Szykneij]

A thread about hiking, takes a mere 4 posts to mention Schnittke !

Do people like typing the word Schnittke, because it looks aesthetically cool?

I like the word Pickle or Tootsie Roll those are funny words.

Speaking of that, I saw Kellie Pickler in concert on Friday. She appeared locally (walking distance) in a nicely renovated theater downtown.

Thread duty: I find hiking through the woods a spiritual and cathartic experience. One of my favorite places to visit is Walden Pond in Concord, Massachusetts. (Henry Thoreau and I both share a July 12th birthday, although I'm he's a bit older.)

Part of the magic to me is the soundscape of my surroundings. I never listen to recorded music when I'm walking through the woods. I would miss the sound of the wind, birds, and leaves. That is also music to me.

[Karl Henning]

Part of the magic to me is the soundscape of my surroundings. I never listen to recorded music when I'm walking through the woods. I would miss the sound of the wind, birds, and leaves.

Nor I. Happy Monday, Tony!