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"Alone"
Mar 25, 2017 8:37:53 GMT -8
Post by stealthytomato on Mar 25, 2017 8:37:53 GMT -8
I'm sure this show has been discussed before (I couldn't find it) but I have been watching it lately and I find it fascinating. I hate staged reality tv so this one piqued my interest when it first came out (no film crew, only the contestant).
I think it does a great job of illustrating that it doesn't matter how skilled you are - in the end it's the solitude that will get you.
The other aspect I like is seeing how people from other parts of the country react to the type of forest we have out here (It's filmed on Vancouver Island). Some find it beautiful, some find it oppressive, and it's often both.
In our era of constant, immediate contact it is rare to ever be completely cut off. I don't really like carrying my phone and I don't use it much (I use the apps more than I talk on it) but last year on my first solo trip when I went out of cell signal it surprised me how isolated I immediately felt. No life-line, no apron string to cling to...it was an interesting lesson for me, even as a person who enjoys solitude.
What's the longest you were ever completely alone or cut-off? Or, since so many of you are very experienced, what about the first time you felt isolated like that? Was if different than you expected?
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foxalo
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Life is infinitely stranger than anything the mind could invent.---Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
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Post by foxalo on Mar 25, 2017 8:46:33 GMT -8
I hate to say this, but I often feel more alone when I'm around people and surrounded by all sorts of technology. I have been out of cell range for a few days but it has never been without other people around. I'd love to try getting away from everything and everyone for just a few days to see what my actual take would be. Would it make me appreciate civilization more or solitude more?
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whistlepunk
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I was an award winning honor student once. I have no idea what happened...
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"Alone"
Mar 25, 2017 8:59:17 GMT -8
Post by whistlepunk on Mar 25, 2017 8:59:17 GMT -8
back in the BC days (Before Cellphones) I spent 6 weeks solo and mostly off trail. I occasionally met other people when I was following a trail and had a couple of resupply runs, so my longest total solitude time was maybe 10 days. Since the invention of the devil's tool (the dreaded cellphone) I think the longest was 2-3 days alone with zero outside contact. My wife and I together went 8? days with not seeing anyone and outside world contact. The solitude did not bother me. I seem to keep busy enough so my mind does not dwell on it.
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Post by Lamebeaver on Mar 25, 2017 11:31:58 GMT -8
stealthytomato Not quite backpacking, if you enjoy reading solo stories, you might look into these. Sailing Alone Around the World - Joshua Slocum A world of My Own - Robin Knox Johnson
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daveg
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Michigan
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Post by daveg on Mar 25, 2017 20:21:23 GMT -8
It was back in the late 1970s. I was spending the summer cruising the Great Lakes solo on my 26' sailboat. There was a period of two weeks or slightly more during which I hadn't seen or talked to another human being. No cell phones back then, of course, and I had had no reason to use my VHF radio to speak with anyone.
One afternoon I came into a bay where I planned to spend the night and saw another sailboat anchored there. About an hour later a guy from that sailboat rowed their dinghy over to my boat and invited me to come over for dinner. I gladly accepted.
I rowed over to their boat at dinnertime. There were three people on board. Very welcoming, nice, friendly. Great meal -- a lot better than I would have prepared for myself.
I didn't feel lonely. I had been having a fantastic time. But the thing about that evening that stands out in my memory was that I couldn't stop talking -- like dominating the conversation and not giving my hosts much of a chance to join in talking. It was sooo nice to converse with other people. It wasn't until I was with people again that I realized how much I had missed human companionship.
BTW, Slocum's book is a must read IMHO. I believe you can download it online for free.
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rebeccad
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Post by rebeccad on Mar 25, 2017 20:27:30 GMT -8
I have done a bit of solo hiking back in the day, but I doubt if I ever went more than a day or two without seeing anyone. As a family (or couple) we are often 7 days with no outside contact, and frequently go several days without seeing other people. In fact, we seek it. And we don't carry a phone backpacking.
I suspect it's easier for those of us who grew up BC (as Whistlepunk has it) to cut the contact. We in fact used to do extended car trips (as in weeks) without any means of contacting family, and only got cell phones when our parents got old enough that they objected to us being out of touch for so long.
When I toured Europe by myself, back in my 20s, I experienced something a lot like DaveG on his boat. Except I was surrounded by people, just not ones to connect with usually. When I did get a chance to be part of a family, it meant a lot.
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Post by autumnmist on Mar 26, 2017 7:16:32 GMT -8
foxalo, I feel the same as you. In public and in stores I'm surrounded by people, some of whom stop what they're doing to play with their tech devices. "Excuse me" or just plain greetings seem to be lost in this kind of environment, although there are still a few people who communicate by opening their mouths. Yet with all those people, it's more like being in my own little world, as others are in theirs. daveg, I've had similar experiences, thinking I was at peace being alone but suddenly becoming very, very chatty when finding a fellow human with shared interests. When I get together with a friend, it's a pleasure just to be with another human being who still talks. I think the nature of human interaction is changing, and not for the better. But it's hard to know w/o doing research how many people still talk in person or on cell phones. I will say that I think people who have cell phone conversations in public places, such as waiting rooms of commercial places, are really intruding on the privacy that others have while waiting for services to be performed.
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"Alone"
Mar 26, 2017 12:03:16 GMT -8
Post by stealthytomato on Mar 26, 2017 12:03:16 GMT -8
Wow, quite a variety of experiences!
In my instance it was just one of those "firsts" at feeling that isolation. I don't think I would feel the same in the same situation, now that I am expecting it.
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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 Mar 26, 2017 12:28:00 GMT -8
I relish multi-day solo hikes. There's something special about not having a conversation for four or five days. You start noticing more of what's around you. The sounds, the smells, the utter silence of searing desert heat or deep quiet of a snow-insulated forest.
You stop thinking about the day-to-day and get into the rhythm of the step-to-step. From the zen of walking comes the quiet mind. Soon, your place in the scheme of things is laid out and you no longer wonder about the why. You realize it just is.
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"Alone"
Mar 26, 2017 16:42:07 GMT -8
Post by hikerjer on Mar 26, 2017 16:42:07 GMT -8
What's the longest you were ever completely alone or cut-off? Or, since so many of you are very experienced, what about the first time you felt isolated like that? Was if different than you expected? I took a week long solo trip in the Absaroka-Beartooth once. Although I was by myself, I did meet a couple of parties along the way. Never really felt alone and quite enjoyed it. Many of my hikes nowadays are solo unless you count my dog. I enjoy it that way.
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Post by autumnmist on Mar 26, 2017 16:43:48 GMT -8
desert dweller, and you can forget about things like neighbors, taxes, traffic, and the sometimes annoying aspects of urban living. At night you can hear birds or animals, or just the sound of silence, as opposed to sirens, racing cars, or someone else's loud music. Nor do you smell auto exhaust or hear lawn mowers of snow throwers, or snow plows.
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franco
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Post by franco on Mar 26, 2017 17:42:19 GMT -8
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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 Mar 26, 2017 20:28:53 GMT -8
The subject is a rather humorous reflection of the era we our now in because for most of my life while out on road trip camping, much less backpacking into wilderness, we enthusiast would have little clue for days what has been happening in the world or with people and relatives we know. Common was the situation of going out on a week plus long backpack and upon return getting shocked by a list of big news. Recall not a few times wondering if when I reached my car and started driving back into civilization if I'd be listening to news of some vast California earthquake and ensuing chaos. Of course even decades ago, a person could bring along a small AM/FM radio and catch stations at night, but even when we occasionally did bring along something, it usually was just dead weight in our packs. Far more interesting on trips is what we were going to be doing the next day.
I have a master list of every backpack I've ever done including itineraries and just looking at some of them while solo, I can say that not far beyond trailheads on first and last days, that I did not see anyone. I do recall getting lonely on a trip while a twentysomething out in no-where-land that indeed bothered me that one time. But that is much too ancient to recall why or what.
When I look up on a moonless night at timberline elevations into the Milky Way and Universe, I do not feel alone but rather can readily imagine there is something out there far greater than we puny mortal creatures.
David
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rebeccad
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Post by rebeccad on Mar 26, 2017 20:47:12 GMT -8
we enthusiast would have little clue for days what has been happening in the world I recall coming off a week + on the trail and hitching a ride back to Seattle. I jokingly asked the driver if anything interesting had happened in the world in the last couple of weeks, and was told that Iran had invaded Kuwait.
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geosp
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Post by geosp on Mar 27, 2017 0:31:46 GMT -8
Bit sad the dependancy that many folk seem to have on being in constant contact with someone. Seems there's even a 'syndrome' now where some youngsters will have panic attacks if deprived of their cellphones. Not sure what sort of generations that's producing. Possibly very informed and sociable but maybe not very self-reliant. Just about all my backpacking experiences have been solo. Longest in isolation around 10 - 12 days. Did the PCT before the cellphone phenomenom, and way before 'Wild' and its subsequent popularity. 10 days was about the longest there. Up until a couple of years ago I'd take annual sojurns at Port Pegasus which lies at the southern tip of Stewart Island which itself lies off the southern end of NZ's South Island. About a 3 hour boat from the north eastern part of Stewart island where there is a small settlement (Oban) of about 400. No habitation or roads (away from Oban) and no cell coverage. Would get dropped off with my kayak and then rendezvous with the pick up again usually around 12 days later. Would make a couple of base camps down there and go for a bit of a wander. Deer, seals, sea lions and penguins being the only company in that time. I never missed human company or felt lonely as I was always 'doing' something or other, and I think being occupied is the key. Weather can be pretty varied down there so what I would begin to miss around day 9 would be the comforts of turning on a tap, (faucet) or just grabbing food from a fridge... and the comfort of a dry bed! But that was good as it kind of made me appreciate what I actually had back in 'civilisation'. I guess that's one of the general attractions of backpacking/hiking. It makes you appreciate what you have. Maybe my mind set is coloured by being from a generation that wasn't brought up reliant on the comm's world. Our home didn't have any phone until I was about 13. Cellphones and computers were the stuff of science fiction. Contact was by letter and in my case (being at sea in my younger days) being out of contact with family and friends for several months at a time. Having said all that - I'd probably panic these days if my computer blew a fuse or my emails went AWOL!
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