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Post by riversong on Aug 5, 2016 7:32:21 GMT -8
Full of dust, sweaty and tripping over rocks every so often, people STILL come up to me and ask for directions and advice. Sadly, I have no sense of direction whatsoever so that is a lost cause, but I am usually happy to chat about trail news or whatever. "I have no idea, I am wandering myself but there are MOOSE just 1/4 mile up thataway," usually suffices. They take off like a shot. ;-|
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2016 7:52:35 GMT -8
"I have no idea, I am wandering myself but there are MOOSE just 1/4 mile up thataway," usually suffices. They take off like a shot. ;-| Toward the moose? Or away from the moose? Or was it one of those "Oh-oh-wild-woman-in-the-woods" encounters? Flee with your lives! Heh, heh. j/k
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Post by riversong on Aug 5, 2016 8:02:25 GMT -8
Definitely TOWARDS to get that perfect selfie from 10' away.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Aug 5, 2016 8:09:12 GMT -8
Definitely TOWARDS to get that perfect selfie from 10' away. Oh geeze, I should have known.
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Post by riversong on Aug 5, 2016 8:11:46 GMT -8
I am certain that they consider themselves fortunate to have met a wild woods woman covered with genuine trail dust, scratches, and unwashed hair that is beginning to dread lock itself in delightfully creative ways. I think to myself that they reek to high heaven of Axe and Pink Sugar, but it is a remote possiblity that the feeling goes both ways.
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Post by Grizzly James on Aug 5, 2016 8:46:32 GMT -8
As I repair here at my desk, manly beverage at hand, I am reminiscent of one trip to New Mexico. We were near Alamogordo, by the White Sands there, encamped somewhere or another, I suppose it doesn't really matter where. It was post supper, and we were strolling about when we met a lone man in flannel, of whom we got to talking with. I invited him over to our camp fire later that night to chew the fat a spell, if he wanted that is. And he did.
Now, I've never in all my days seen a man talk that much in the woods. Indeed, not even a woman! He kept going and going, regaling us in good story and verse. Trips to Alaska. Motorcycling across the United States. Salmon fishing Ketchikan. It was lovely. And he brought his own beer, too, a case of it as I recall, and sucked down copious quantities of the brew, whilst a full moon worked its way across a splendid New Mexican sky. It was going good for the first couple of hours. And I was enjoying it. But by the third and fourth hour, I don't mind saying, my eyeballs were rolling to the back of my head, as I tried in vain to stay awake. But the man wouldn't run out of stories. Nay, he wouldn't shut up!
Well, it was going on past midnight now, and the moon shadows had definitely swung a great deal, pointing straight to my tent, and the fluffy sleeping bag where I longed to be. And as the clocked ticked into its 5th hour of our guest and his banter, as good as it was, I didn't have the heart to tell him to quit and go home. I just stood up, and started to pick up camp for the night, hoping he'd get the point. But he didn't. I eventually went and laid down in the tent, belly-up, with my feet still sticking out the door, this in a lofty attempt to let him know I was still with him, but just felt the inherent need to be horizontal for while. He seemed to understand. When I came too several minutes later, or was it an hour, he was still sitting out by the fire, talking away. And in the morning, he was gone.
-GJ
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Post by tipiwalter on Aug 5, 2016 8:52:19 GMT -8
Grizzly---There's having a discussion and there's being accosted.
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mk
Trail Wise!
North Texas
Posts: 1,217
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Post by mk on Aug 5, 2016 13:43:55 GMT -8
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Post by Grizzly James on Aug 5, 2016 14:45:00 GMT -8
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Post by autumnmist on Aug 5, 2016 16:26:42 GMT -8
** In my fetid opinion they are playing around the fringes of the Great Forest and for some reason cannot seem to stretch a simple dayhike into an overnighter. In their defense, you don't know their circumstances and why their ventures are limited to dayhikes. Myself, I'm one of those, for a number of reasons, the strongest of which is that I have an almost 100 year old father who needs a lot of care, and repeated check-ins and check-ups to make sure he's okay (and not getting himself into any trouble). It isn't easy to rush back to civilization for an ER visit if necessary.
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Post by tipiwalter on Aug 5, 2016 17:04:30 GMT -8
In their defense, you don't know their circumstances and why their ventures are limited to dayhikes. Myself, I'm one of those, for a number of reasons, the strongest of which is that I have an almost 100 year old father who needs a lot of care, and repeated check-ins and check-ups to make sure he's okay (and not getting himself into any trouble). It isn't easy to rush back to civilization for an ER visit if necessary. This is true. My elderly mother lived with me and my wife for 18 months and my overnight trips were partially curtailed. I was lucky to pull a 4 day trip. On the other hand, the thousands of dayhikers I see out and about belong to hiking clubs which never pull overnighters, and many of the participants are themselves retired and elderly. Not all of them have 100 year old parents. But God bless them, at least they're hiking in the backcountry. Whether dayhiking exists or not is not the question, and whether they can stretch a done in a day trek into an overnighter doesn't really matter---my only point is that I tend to remove myself out of the company of dayhikers if possible. Brings down trip momentum. How to understand this? It's sort of like being out for 3 weeks backpacking and you have to cross an asphalt road with traffic. It's not so weird: You don't want to be seen by a single set of rolling eyeballs and so you wait hidden on the side of the road and rush across once traffic is clear. A similar analogy.
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Post by johntpenca on Aug 5, 2016 22:36:38 GMT -8
I will stop and chat for a few minutes then move on. Even as a male I don't give out any information such as my planned route or camping destination. And would never invite someone into my camp.
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balzaccom
Trail Wise!
Waiting for spring...
Posts: 4,551
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Post by balzaccom on Aug 6, 2016 8:06:55 GMT -8
We once met a group of smiling young people hiking on the trail....I greeted them with a "How's it going?"
No answer from any of the ten...
Hmmm.
I tried again. "Where ya headed?"
Still no answer.
Finally, last guy in line says " We're on a religious retreat and today we've taken a vow of silence..."
Okey dokey...
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rebeccad
Trail Wise!
Writing like a maniac
Posts: 12,710
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Post by rebeccad on Aug 6, 2016 8:30:43 GMT -8
Whether dayhiking exists or not is not the question, and whether they can stretch a done in a day trek into an overnighter doesn't really matter---my only point is that I tend to remove myself out of the company of dayhikers if possible. Interesting, because it sure sounded like you were condemning those who don't enjoy the woods your way. Oddly, I both backpack and dayhike. And enjoy both, and find there are appropriate times for each. As for the main question: I like to go for days without seeing anyone but my own party (usually my family), but I enjoy a minute's chat when I meet a hiker, if they are equally interested in being friendly. balzaccom maybe that explains the guy we met in Sequoia last month who didn't so much as nod when we said "good morning." Granted, his t-shirt had a slogan in some probably eastern-European language so maybe he didn't speak English, but I figured the tone was clear enough to indicate a friendly greeting, and would have expected a nod or "hi" in response. Zero acknowledgement of the hiker who goes by with a greeting seems a bit rude. But a vow of silence--ah, that explains it all!
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Post by tipiwalter on Aug 6, 2016 8:47:48 GMT -8
Interesting, because it sure sounded like you were condemning those who don't enjoy the woods your way. I just hope you got the point I was trying to make---don't want to really interact with dayhikers when I'm on a long backpacking trip. I used crossing a road and not wanting to be seen by traffic as a similar example to encountering dayhikers. I'm not the only one feeling this way, at least with rolling traffic and rolling couch potatoes. Doug Peacock wrote several books both on grizzly bears and his outdoor backpacking experiences and has this wonderful quote in his book, "Grizzly Years." "By midmorning the next day I was moving, and by afternoon I had arrived at the ford: chilly, but no real problem. I had to cross the road, which I had been pretending did not exist. I waited below the edge of a high bank hidden behind a small grove of young pines, watching the sporadic flow of Winnebagos strung out along the highway. I did not want to be seen." "Whatever transcendence I had gained watching the grizzlies the day before slipped away as I crouched nervously below the road grade for fifteen minutes. I sank even lower into the trees as a ranger car passed. I didn't want to let them know I was about. If I got into serious trouble, I didn't want to be rescued. My considerable carcass could feed the bears." DOUG PEACOCK(page 148) It must be remembered that Peacock was a veteran and a Green Beret medic in Vietnam and was used as a model for Ed Abbey's Hayduke character in the Monkey Wrench books. He also helped bury Ed Abbey in an undisclosed location in the desert. "Whatever transcendence I had gained . . . the day before slipped away" perfectly explains my reluctance to hobnob with dayhikers.
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