Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2019 3:04:35 GMT -8
The Berkeley County Sheriff Department inspired me to hike. The sheriff use to pick me up and drive me 13 miles down the road and drop me off, leaving me with no choice but to walk home. I found that by hiding out in the woods, which got me to learning skills, was I able to avoid the sheriff.
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Post by High Sierra Fan on Jul 1, 2019 7:54:36 GMT -8
Colin Fletcher. Backpack
J. R. R. Tolkien. Walk
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davesenesac
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Our precious life is short within eternity, don't waste it!
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Post by davesenesac on Jul 1, 2019 8:15:33 GMT -8
Excellent thread subject, thanks!
No one inspired me to hike. I lived 7 grade school years in the outer northeast suburbs of Sacramento during an era when there were still large open natural areas, especially along the many creeks. Many of we kids played in those riparian areas including much fishing and catching stuff like crayfish, frogs, pollywogs, turtles, snakes, lizards, etc. If it moved, I've grabbed it. And endless oak tree climbing.
Our family did camp, hike, and fish at times when I was quite young, but my dad was increasingly just motivated to road tour just like the many others do today where after driving for hours they hardly ever do more than short 10 minute walks at roadside scenic pullouts.
As a poor twentysomething I initially hiked and backpacked for trout fishing. It took several years of doing so to develop an interest in natural sciences and scenery in part because I have always read much about science and any subject I've had an interest in. The more I read about geology, animals, and fauna, the more interesting and inspiring it all became. Exploring terrain is an exciting activity especially about off trail areas where each step requires a thinking choice. It was only after getting hooked that I read stuff like Colin (Fletcher's) (The Complete) Walker book. I was inspired to do so because the Sierra Nevada is a most awesome area of our planet.
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swmtnbackpacker
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Back but probably posting soon under my real name ... Rico Sauve
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Post by swmtnbackpacker on Jul 1, 2019 8:33:35 GMT -8
Always been outdoorsy on the athletic side. Mom didn’t want us messing up the house during daylight hours, so started bike-riding, walking decent distances to friends and school, ... then distance running after joining the military (about the time aerobic exercise was popularized). Hiking was an extension when I think about it.
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Post by burntfoot on Jul 1, 2019 10:22:51 GMT -8
My family always would do short hikes annually while on our trips around the country. My dad gave my first backpack for my birthday right before my first summer working in Yellowstone. I used it, liked it, and kept on using it.
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gabby
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Post by gabby on Jul 1, 2019 12:32:25 GMT -8
As a poor twentysomething I initially hiked and backpacked for trout fishing. It took several years of doing so to develop an interest in natural sciences and scenery in part because I have always read much about science and any subject I've had an interest in. The more I read about geology, animals, and fauna, the more interesting and inspiring it all became. Exploring terrain is an exciting activity especially about off trail areas where each step requires a thinking choice. It was only after getting hooked that I read stuff like Colin Walker's books. I was inspired to do so because the Sierra Nevada is a most awesome area of our planet. Pretty much where I came from as well, though I'm not at all familiar with "Colin Walker" - I assume you meant the other "Colin" cited above. I spent a short time about an hour ago writing about this, but it - the writing - just didn't jell at all. I started "meandering" (as I am wont to do), so I deleted it. What I "remembered" and how I put it together in writing was not true to what I conjured up thinking about the subject, but I do remember finding the stars interesting enough to start buying books on them (H.A. Rey's "The Stars: A New Way to See Them" stands out for some reason), and along there somewhere I also discovered Colin Fletcher ("The Man Who Walked Through Time" was my first read), and then I started thinking and dreaming about the possibilities with the aid of those, and other, stories and the lists and pictures of gear from early Backpacker magazines. It's sometimes amazing how the trivial and difficult (in our life experiences, because all I remember of those early attempts at "camping" were truly difficult) can have disproportionate effects on what we think and do and love. After reviewing what I recall of my own experience, I suspect that the "doing" is more important than the "thinking" and "reading", and, had I grown up in some place more like the Sierra Nevada, I might have been more of a "doer" than a "reader". |
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Hungry Jack
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Living and dying in 3/4 time...
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Post by Hungry Jack on Jul 1, 2019 13:27:41 GMT -8
My father was a western outdoorsman. My first backpack trip was up to Mildred Lakes in the Olympic Mountains near his childhood home in Bremerton. We did a few trips like that when I was a wee one.
I did not resume backpacking in earnest until about 27. I took a few trips to the UP, and then decided to tackle the 160 mile River to River trail with my bed. That was like getting a PhD, as we made plenty of mistakes on that trip (starting with a pack weighing about 50 pounds with lots of unneeded gear).
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2019 13:29:31 GMT -8
then decided to tackle the 160 mile River to River trail with my bed. Now this should be in the luxury item thread. |
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reuben
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Post by reuben on Jul 1, 2019 14:46:17 GMT -8
Rob Noonan.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 1, 2019 16:59:54 GMT -8
My dad always had us out in the woods. Always a learning experience, but it was Colin Fletcher that sent me on my way. The Svea 123 in my avatar is leftover from that time period...........
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desert dweller
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Power to the Peaceful...Hate does not create.
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Post by desert dweller on Jul 1, 2019 19:11:00 GMT -8
No one else in my family has shown even a modicum of interest for spending time in the outdoors. On occasion Dad would drive us to some wooded area or to the breaks and have a picnic style afternoon. But, never an overnight. My four week stint in the Boy Scouts ended abruptly when the concept of knots just wouldn't sink in and I lost interest in organized camping. It wasn't till I was twenty-three years old and stationed at Fort Huachuca in southern Arizona that I was exposed to any kind of walking-for-pleasure concept. It was a guy I worked with, a fellow soldier. He was an E-7 and I was an E-5. I didn't know him very well even though he was next up in my chain-of-command. His name was John Beagle. I don't know why he took an interest in me. We were both married and had separate lives. He was about 15 years older than me. We really had nothing in common. But, one day he said, Let's do a hike. It was a short day hike in the Huachuca Mountains. During that hike and through the conversation, I was bitten hard by the whole hiking, camping, backpacking and getting out life. I started reading up stuff and got some maps of the area. Within a month or so we did the first overnight. John and I did a few more overnight type hikes, but, he was a smoker and really couldn't get into the longer time and distances I was starting to get interested in. It was enough time and interest to change my life and greatly impact my outlook and personal philosophy. I got out of the Army a couple of years before he retired. We maintained a strong friendship throughout our college days. After he graduated he got married after divorcing his first wife and moved to El Paso. For whatever reason, he never wanted to do the deep hiking and soon that part common activity fell by the wayside. He died a few years after moving to El Pase of lung cancer. John just wouldn't give up smoking and was sure he wasn't going to get cancer because he was made it through his 50s and fewer people got cancer in their 60s. It was sad when his wife, Mishelle, called with the news. There is a group of four of us who are still friends after 38 years because of the binds and camaraderie that John created. We still get together a few times a year and remember the guy who changed our lives.  |
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Post by swimswithtrout on Jul 1, 2019 19:33:09 GMT -8
Sam Gribley from "My Side of the Mountain"...
I first read it when I was ~6 yrs old and soon learned to make a fire with flint /steel, harvest cattails and catch fish using a hand-line (but real fish hooks).
I would fix my supper and sleep out next to my fire in my backyard but always wanted to wander further....
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toejam
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Hiking to raise awareness
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Post by toejam on Jul 2, 2019 4:08:52 GMT -8
I guess I'd also credit my dad. Not because he took me hiking, but because he took me to lots of beautiful places in a car that made me wish I was hiking.
Lots of credit goes to our society for continually sh*tting on me and making want to escape into the mountains.
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walkswithblackflies
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Post by walkswithblackflies on Jul 2, 2019 6:35:38 GMT -8
No one. My parents weren't into the outdoors. But my friends and I were always exploring in the woods. In college I got introduced to the Adirondacks. That might have been the first time I was on an actual hiking trail. I didn't do much hiking during my college years, but got reintroduced to the Adks about 5 years later. A group of us went up there for a 2-night/1-day backpack during one of the worst cold spells on record, led by one of my friends who was a NOLS graduate. It was an epic failure. About a month later a co-worker and I went back up there to attempt the same route/itinerary and it was great. That's when I got hooked.
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Travis
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Post by Travis on Jul 2, 2019 8:17:02 GMT -8
Who inspired me? When I was about 4 years old, an older brother and sister abandoned me in a wooded ravine. After the initial panic, I managed to climb high enough to see where I was and walk out. I don’t think I’ve ever trusted anyone since to do my trip planning.
I grew up in the outdoors on two sets of grandparents’ homesteads of the early 1900s. One was on the Wyoming steppes, the other in the Colorado mountains. I saw my first bears, mountain lions and so on by time I was six years old.
My youth was full of unsettled land, wildlife, and visits to the national parks of the West. That's where I've always found adventure, exercise, and tranquility.
Long live the Wilderness!
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