Hiking

[Szykneij]

Nor I. Happy Monday, Tony!

Happy Monday to you, Karl. I have the sudden urge to visit the Middlesex Fells.

[Brian]

Does a bear schnittke in the woods?

[North Star]

Does a bear schnittke in the woods?

Only if it doesn't see you first.

[Szykneij]

Does a bear schnittke in the woods?

Does anyone else find the Charmin bear commercials as disturbing as I do?

[kyjo]

OK, gentlemen, back on topic, please.....

[Brian]

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:

Goodness what dramatic photographs. My aunt hiked through Switzerland not long ago; she used a service that carries your luggage to the next night's hotel so you can walk with as little as possible on your back. Useful service, or silly luxury? I could see the argument either way.

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? 

Not going to lie. Though I've done five days through elevated terrain, true long distance trails don't hold much appeal to me. The idea of carrying a tent, and food, and other necessary provisions (~40 lbs. was plenty, and I didn't even bring a raincoat), or dealing with mosquitoes for a month, needing to take a month off work anyway (not possible for most Americans): trails like the Appalachian have always seemed more terrifying than worthwhile to me.

Except the Te Araroa (for other GMGers: New Zealand's tip-to-tip 3,000km trail from the north end of North Island to the south end of South). If as a relatively fit, relatively young person (next 30 years?) I have four free months and a masochistic twinge, I want to do it. Almost certainly never will, of course, but I want to.

Maybe it's because the place where I spent the first half of my life looked like this:




(real places ~10 miles from my first home)

...which means that literally every climate zone in New Zealand is "exotic" to me.

[Mirror Image]

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 

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'll mention Schnittke whenever I get the chance but in an appropriate thread of course. We can blame Kyle for bringing Schnittke into this thread.

[Mirror Image]

Not going to lie. Though I've done five days through elevated terrain, true long distance trails don't hold much appeal to me. The idea of carrying a tent, and food, and other necessary provisions (~40 lbs. was plenty, and I didn't even bring a raincoat), or dealing with mosquitoes for a month, needing to take a month off work anyway (not possible for most Americans): trails like the Appalachian have always seemed more terrifying than worthwhile to me.

The Appalachian Trail is only terrifying if someone pushes you off of Blood Mountain.

[Brian]

The Appalachian Trail is only terrifying if someone pushes you off of Blood Mountain.

Or if you meet a bear, right?

I remember reading this outrageously funny book:

[Mirror Image]

Or if you meet a bear, right?

A bear wouldn't help matters either.

[AnthonyAthletic]

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'll mention Schnittke whenever I get the chance but in an appropriate thread of course. We can blame Kyle for bringing Schnittke into this thread.

I don't own much Schnittke as such, just a cd of his cello works which I really need to dig out again.  I can't even find it on Amazon but IIRC remember Karl had the same cd???

I have had my eye on the "10 symphony" set on BIS for a while as we are getting a £50 Amazon voucher soon from work for achieving 2 years without an accident, so half of it is bookmarked for this set.  Also getting a Pizza party this Monday when we hit the two year mark.

Schnittke & Pizza sound pretty good 

Thread duty:  Went for a good ramble on Sunday (don't do it often enough), about 5 miles around the Countryside, twinged my knee, just bent it backwards with a jolt...been clicking all week at work but not so bad now.

[vandermolen]

Many years ago my brother and I walked the Pennine Way. A high level route from the Derbyshire Peak District to Scotland. It was perhaps the best holiday of my life. Most weekends my wife and I borrow the dog of the local vicar and go walking on either Ashdown Forest ( home of Winnie-the-Pooh) or on the South Downs. So, hiking is a favourite hobby of mine too  . Usually I try to match the landscape with a piece of music running through my mind (Moeran's Symphony for example).

[Rinaldo]

Useful service, or silly luxury? I could see the argument either way.

If you're fit to carry your stuff, I'd say the latter - but ask me again in thirty years or so!

[Sergeant Rock]

Any others share my love of hiking?

Until nine years ago when a neurological condition began to limit my ability to walk long distances, hiking was a favorite pastime. I don't mean to pile on when you're down, kyjo, but I've often hiked with women (friends, girlfriends, wives), women who enjoyed the exercise, the outdoors and nature as much as me. That was true even in high school and college. There was a tradition of going to Mohican State Park the day after the Prom, to hike and picnic. At Ohio U the surrounding Appalachian wilderness provided great hiking (and ample places to realize MI's fantasy  )

Mrs. Rock and I used to hike in the local vineyards every other evening, and go for longer hikes on the weekends. Using topographic maps we'd hike for hours to find Roman and Celtic walls and fortifications, and medieval castle ruins that are buried deep in Germany's forests. 

This is us circa 1994, in the vineyards of Nierstein. Left click to enlarge.



The steep, south-facing Brudersberg is in the background. We're walking beside the Goldene Luft on our way to the Hipping (the details for our wine loving members  )


Sarge

[Parsifal]

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

Is it a coincidence that the ones who have never spoken to a girl are the ones that come up with the theories that all women are the same?

[Brian]

Is it a coincidence that the ones who have never spoken to a girl are the ones that come up with the theories that all women are the same?

see attached scientific diagram

[amw]

Not going to lie. Though I've done five days through elevated terrain, true long distance trails don't hold much appeal to me. The idea of carrying a tent, and food, and other necessary provisions (~40 lbs. was plenty, and I didn't even bring a raincoat), or dealing with mosquitoes for a month, needing to take a month off work anyway (not possible for most Americans): trails like the Appalachian have always seemed more terrifying than worthwhile to me.

Except the Te Araroa (for other GMGers: New Zealand's tip-to-tip 3,000km trail from the north end of North Island to the south end of South). If as a relatively fit, relatively young person (next 30 years?) I have four free months and a masochistic twinge, I want to do it. Almost certainly never will, of course, but I want to.

(It's just "Te Araroa", "The Te Araroa" is basically "The The Long Path" >.>)

I've never considered doing that, partly because I'm not sure I'd survive even the relatively "easy" Great Walks at this point, heh. (Don't exercise nearly enough these days.) I'm not sure you'd need a tent, bedroll and so forth though; our huts are not as luxurious as Alpine chalets but I think they do have beds and running water and possibly even heating. Definitely you'll never have to do the PCT thing and leave caches of food along the trail in advance.

Personally I somewhat prefer hiking during the day and sleeping at home in my own bed during the night, though I can see some of the appeal of multi-day excursions. I'm not sure there are any I have a pressing desire to do at this point, but perhaps that will change over my Christmas vac trip to the South Island.

Maybe it's because the place where I spent the first half of my life looked like this:




(real places ~10 miles from my first home)

...which means that literally every climate zone in New Zealand is "exotic" to me.

In that case, you might be surprised at how much of NZ looks like this



>.>

[Brian]

In that case, you might be surprised at how much of NZ looks like this



>.>

Hey, there are hills back there. Also, animals! Central Indiana is surprisingly short on actual farm animals: it mostly produces feed corn for the animals in the rest of the Midwest, so when I grew up it was miles and miles of corn.

Thanks for the correction on Te Araroa. And I prefer my own bed, but the walk in Spain had nice shelters for 10 euros a night that I got along fine with. Beds and running water is pretty good. (But if you ever try a weekend trip, do consider some sort of protection against bedbugs... my friend got them in her sleeping bag and had to throw it out.)

[Klaze]

We have walked two long distance paths in the UK: the West Highland Way (150 km) and the Cleveland Way (176 km). Both of them were great experiences. The west Highland way has fantastic and dramatic scenery while the walking is actually quite easy. I think we got lucky, because it was quiet when we were walking it, but i heard it can be a bit too busy. The Cleveland Way runs around the North York Moors national park, a very varied scenerey: Heather moorlands, a few nice hills, you follow the coastline for a few days, and pass some charming villages. The Cumbria way and (parts of) the Pennine way are also on our to-do list.

I also really enjoyed walking across Hardangervidda in Norway, and woud like to go back to Norway and do a longer tour some day.

[Tapio Dmitriyevich]

Love hiking. Small things with my dog (I prefer forests and not to meet any people), but also longer trips. This summer we had a trip over Austria, hiking on 2000-3000m elevation with ~8kg baggage everyone. Close to nature. It's great, you can even die if you fall down at the wrong place. Some parts very exhausting. At the horizon I see my right knee will not allow this forever.