schlanky
Trail Wise!
Lead singer, driver of the Winnebago
Posts: 452
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Post by schlanky on Jun 29, 2019 17:36:07 GMT -8
As an offshoot of the "Who Needs Stars" thread, I thought I'd start this one. In that thread, some posters talked about the importance of exposing kids/other people to the outdoors.
Who inspired you?
Here's mine:
My Dad> Ed, was a hunter and fisherman. He grew up as a single child who took the train from Bessemer south to the mining communities in Bibb County where his uncles lived. His uncles taught him to hunt and fish. Ed* told me stories about how they'd each just pack a "bedrolll" and a little food, then they'd hit the river for the day. They slept on a creek bank and returned back to his uncles' house sometime the next afternoon. They were free.
(* From the time I was in early high school, I called my Dad, Ed, by his first name. I told him that fatherhood was biological, but he'd earned more than that so I preferred to call him by his first name as a matter of respect. He was cool with it.)
As I was growing up, Ed taught me to hunt and fish. I was a decent fisherman, but a terrible hunter. I didn't really care if I got a shot. But learning to hunt is why I'm a hiker.
We'd enter the woods at first light when it was still too dark to see the bead on the end of my shotgun. I followed Ed to the tree stand. He'd watch me climb up and load my shotgun, then he'd leave me there and come back hours later to check on me. Approaching the tree stand, he'd give his telltale owl call to let me know he was near. We'd eat sandwiches he brought and talk a bit, then he'd disappear into the trees again. I'd hear the owl call later when he was approaching because it was time to go home.
In those hours between, I was on my own. Free.
I'd climb down and walk around. Over time, I learned I liked being in the woods by myself. I worked out all my teenage problems as I watched the birds and the trees in the breeze.
Years later after college, I was engaged. She broke it off (a favor that I didn't recognize until later). But I was crushed. She and I had all the same hangouts and I just needed to get away to think. I defaulted back to the woods. I drove to Cheaha State Park and walked. After a few hikes there, I noticed there was a much longer trail (the Pinhoti) that ran through the park. I wondered if maybe one day I could hike all of it. I started the northern terminus doing day hikes every weekend. Somewhere along the way, I got over her. My last trip to finish the Pinhoti was my first overnighter.
Ed taught me to enjoy the outdoors. I enjoy it differently than he did, but he's the person who took me out there and showed it to me.
Everyone here got that gift from someone. How did you start hiking?
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balzaccom
Trail Wise!
Waiting for spring...
Posts: 4,493
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Post by balzaccom on Jun 29, 2019 18:27:24 GMT -8
My dad loved the outdoors, and worked as a summer ranger during his vacations from teaching school. So I was camping and living in the mountains literally for as long as I can remember.
Hiking? That's what you do in the mountains. I did my first hikes in my mother's hip, accompanying my older brother and sister.
All of that instilled a lifelong love of of hiking.
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swiftdream
Trail Wise!
the Great Southwest Unbound
Posts: 543
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Post by swiftdream on Jun 29, 2019 18:29:53 GMT -8
What “taught” me to hike was the apparent need to escape suburban hell. Even at four years old I was a very independent little tyke and I decided to go forth into this world on my own. I was penniless and without a mount but the forest across the street was the only place I felt right. So I took off on my first solo overnight with a rather anemic gear list of a green plastic bow and suction cup arrow as well as a green plastic knife I tucked into my shorts which I quickly lost. They couldn’t find me until the following day a mile through the forest and fast asleep in a burned out ditch on the other side, contented. I was dragged back, probably in chains but I liked the experience of being abroad so much that I soon repeated it, a thing I would do over and over until they tired of chasing and I never did go back after I was 16. I did work on my gear list from day one and simply learned to instinctively love the wild places from pure experiences.
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driftwoody
Trail Wise!
Take the path closer to the edge, especially if less traveled
Posts: 14,973
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Post by driftwoody on Jun 29, 2019 18:37:32 GMT -8
I can't say that anyone inspired me to hike. My parents didn't camp or hike, and I wasn't in the boy scouts. Between the ages of 10-13 I used to go with a friend and his older brother & dad to Saganashkee Slough, which is a long lake along 107th St in the Cook County Forest Preserve District southwest of Chicago. My friend and I quickly bored of fishing, so we hiked around the lake instead. One time we decided to explore the trails on the other side of 107th St, and soon came upon the ruins of what appeared to be an old industrial site of some kind. Then we came into a field, in the middle of which was a big granite rock shaved flat on one side with an inscription: Pretty cool, huh? In case you can't read the inscription on the image, here's the text:And a link with more info. If anything got me started hiking, that did, though not all that much at first. In high school when we could drive I'd go with my buddies to these woods, but we just walked in to a favorite spot to have a fire and drink beer, among other things. I really didn't get started hiking in earnest until I went away to college at Southern Illinois University in Carbondale. Southern Illinois has Shawnee National Forest and several very good state parks with scenic highlights. That's when I really got exposed to it, though I didn't actually start backpacking until a few years after college, in the mid-1980's. Locally I still go hiking by the world's first nuclear reactor, and other areas within 20 minutes of my home in DuPage County. Going off trail in the winter I've found some pretty cool spots and made some routes more navigable with my folding pruning saw. But I really look forward to the big trips, mostly in the Southern Appalachians -- but as far as New Hampshire's White Mountains to southern Utah, and many places in between. And I keep going back Southern Illinois, as well.
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Post by catonsvillebill on Jun 29, 2019 19:20:13 GMT -8
No one inspired me to hike. I started walking after work to lose weight. I did & I was hooked. Then I went to the nearby Chesapeake & Ohio Canal and walked along the towpath, for a more scenic hike. Then I bought a backpack.......
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texasbb
Trail Wise!
Hates chicken
Posts: 1,223
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Post by texasbb on Jun 29, 2019 20:04:35 GMT -8
My dad did love fishing the creek on our property, but I can't really say anyone inspired my love of hiking. I've always just loved being outdoors. Loved playing outside, climbing trees, crashing brush, fishing the blackwater creeks as a kid--we lived on 60 wooded acres in the heart of the Big Ticket of SE Texas. Joined Boy Scouts for the brief two years it was available when I was in Jr. High, all on my own initiative because my Dad figured I had plenty of woods to play in at home.
Spent a summer working in New Mexico at 19, and it was just natural to spend my spare time out exploring, usually by myself. Repeat another summer in NM, then one in CO. I remember my surprise when I realized others had no desire to get out in all that beauty.
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rebeccad
Trail Wise!
Writing like a maniac
Posts: 12,666
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Post by rebeccad on Jun 29, 2019 20:50:01 GMT -8
I grew up in the outdoors, and our family camped and hiked, though not much backpacking. But somehow the gene was there (my parents were backpackers before having 3 kids), and I knew all along I wanted to backpack. I think I'm just one of those people. The ones who aren't quite right if they don't get to spend some nights outdoors and a long way from people.
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zeke
Trail Wise!
Peekaboo slot 2023
Posts: 9,877
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Post by zeke on Jun 30, 2019 4:19:48 GMT -8
I'm the only one in my family bitten by the outdoor bug. I violated rules as a child by riding my bike 8 entire blocks from home, just so I could play in the woods and the creek that was there. I began BP'ing in HS, once I had a job and could afford my own gear. No Scouts. No other influence. I just felt better in the woods. As a young adult, of maybe 24, I sought out the mountains and have never looked back. What I have learned has mostly been from trial and error. This place has exposed me to some better ways, and Hammock Forums has helped with some others.
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Post by Lamebeaver on Jun 30, 2019 4:22:56 GMT -8
I've always enjoyed being outdoors. I don't think anyone inspired me. Some of us were just born that way.
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Post by cweston on Jun 30, 2019 5:39:39 GMT -8
My family camped, canoed, and day hiked growing up. My first BP trips were with Boy Scouts, and I'd be lying if I said that it was love at first experience, but I guess the seed was planted.
My wife and I moved from Michigan to Seattle in our early 20s, and that was what really sealed the deal. We enjoyed hiking and camping, were in a beautiful place to do it, and couldn't afford much of anything else.
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Post by bradmacmt on Jun 30, 2019 11:44:36 GMT -8
No one inspired me to walk... I think it's an innate, God given pastime. Some rise to its calling, some don't.
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crawford
Trail Wise!
Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.--Edison
Posts: 1,775
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Post by crawford on Jun 30, 2019 12:57:01 GMT -8
My father introduced me to camping. He also got all of us into outdoor pursuits like hunting and fishing. I took it a little farther in my early teens with Scouting, which my dad helped to lead, with some backpack camping as we called it. By my later teen years me and a friend were heading out for weekend backpacking trips. Dad didn't love that, said he had enough of that in the Army, but he encouraged me. I always felt good out there, whether hunting, fishing, backpacking, it really didn't matter I just liked it all.
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markskor
Trail Wise!
Mammoth Lakes & Tuolumne Meadows...living the dream
Posts: 651
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Post by markskor on Jun 30, 2019 14:49:21 GMT -8
In high school, one summer a teacher organized a Sierra multi-section backpacking trip...50 kids total...5 separate weeks...one new group came up and the last group drove home. We exchanged sleeping bags and backpacks (tube tents too) at the end of each week...all food was pre-packaged for 13 people - 3 adults and 10 kids.
From my paper route, paid the $100 for the week, then bought me some boots (Red Wings)...I started out absolutely green with the first group out of Yosemite Valley. FYI, before this I had never even considered backpacking, knew nothing about it...(dad didn't do wilderness)...I just wanted some adventure and to get out of my parent's San Fernando Valley house.
In Reds Meadow, (the first exchange point), 2 kids had dropped out (go figure). They asked if anybody from week one wanted to go on week two - free...as the food was already paid for and packaged.
Long story short, 5 weeks later was eating a Portal burger. My first ever backpack trip turned out to be the Muir...now hooked... I never looked back.
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Post by Campfires&Concierges on Jun 30, 2019 15:35:59 GMT -8
My aunt - she always took me on hikes, but she and her husband started bringing my mom, sister and I on vacation with them to Colorado or the Black Hills each summer and my wanderlust was born.
In school, my best friend's parents were teachers and they had all the recreation toys - RV, boat, ATV's so they really introduced me to camping (the kids usually slept in a tent outside, not in the RV)
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Post by starwalker on Jun 30, 2019 21:14:04 GMT -8
No one person, but Boy Scouting got me out there.
A story of an ancestor of mine. My great-grandfather Ott decided to travel to Oklahoma Territory right after the Land Run to buy some land form someone who decided they didn't want what they had claimed. He rode the Rock Island to Waukomis, then walked from there to Ames, a distance of 18 miles, bought the property, then walked back to Waukomis the same day for a total of 36 miles. He ordered room service at the hotel, but went to sleep without eating it and caught the train back to Kansas the next day. He lived in Ames the rest of his life. I guess I got the walking bug from him. I never met him as he died the month before I was born.
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