desert dweller
Trail Wise!
Power to the Peaceful...Hate does not create.
Posts: 6,291 
|
Post by desert dweller on Oct 4, 2015 13:49:30 GMT -8
I figure just like there are nine billion names for God. There are just as many opinions of what Backpacking is/means. On my Sunday afternoon bike ride I got to thinking. A lot of folks ask me why I backpack alone. I always give the expected answer. But, the real reason popped into mind on today's ride.
Here's what came to mind. Backpacking is bonding time for Mind and Body. I figure out a lot of stuff when walking one-step- at-a-time.
Feel free to share your definition and/or meaning for backpacking.
|
|
tarol
Trail Wise!
Redding, CA
Posts: 582 
|
Post by tarol on Oct 4, 2015 14:01:15 GMT -8
For me it's about a connection, one I make to the place and the place makes to me. I try to impact a place as little as possible, but it definitely impacts me. Everytime I go out into the wild I am renewed in my desire to protect it. It affects me and I go back to work and I try in my ever-expanding circle of influence to make sure it will be there to affect my children and their children.
|
|
zeke
Trail Wise!
Peekaboo slot 2023
Posts: 9,881
|
Post by zeke on Oct 4, 2015 14:33:56 GMT -8
I backpack for several reasons. I like reconnecting with nature, and I like testing my old body to see how far downhill it has gone since last tested. I prefer to hike with others, for the camaraderie. I am a social animal, and like the company of a few of my fellow humans. There are some I will not hike with again, and some I'd love to share a trail with.
I spend lots of time alone, and figuring out things in my mind is one of the ways to stay active mentally.
|
|
|
|
Post by High Sierra Fan on Oct 4, 2015 22:21:57 GMT -8
Carrying stuff in a pack on your back and staying out overnight using that stuff.
No overnight and I'd call it dayhiking.
For me that's the pivotal difference that's the attraction for me: going out there and staying out there to wake up out there the next morning. Day hiking, as enjoyable as I find that, inevitably has the return "back", even when that "back" is just to a car campground. Breaks the continuity of the experience imho.
|
|
amaruq
Trail Wise!
Call me Little Spoon
Posts: 1,264
|
Post by amaruq on Oct 5, 2015 4:18:39 GMT -8
Tough question to answer. Better go for a walk in the bush to think it over.
|
|
|
|
Post by graywolf on Oct 5, 2015 5:38:14 GMT -8
For me backpacking means I'm going to a place where there are no buildings, roads or machines. A place where I can breathe fresh air, see natural beauty and listen to the sounds of nature. A place where I can watch a sunset in all its splendor and also experience a sunrise with the birds and wildlife as they are waking. Writing this has me all giddy for my next backpacking adventure which is only 10 days away.
|
|
swmtnbackpacker
Trail Wise!
Back but probably posting soon under my real name ... Rico Sauve
Posts: 4,886
|
Post by swmtnbackpacker on Oct 5, 2015 6:04:03 GMT -8
Carrying everything needed to enjoy at least an overnight camp or bivouac by an individual, couple, or group - my 2 cents.
|
|
Deleted
Deleted Member
Posts: 0
|
Post by Deleted on Oct 5, 2015 8:17:43 GMT -8
I go backpacking to visit my relatives: Wild Life. I go to get exercise, to cooperate with nature instead of work against it, to get away from human pretentiousness, to experience the seasons, the cycles of day and night, the changes of weather, to witness the storms, and to marvel at all the intricacies of ecosystems that I am too often estranged from. Some 43 years ago, the small backpacking group where I began this activity made an engineering building the butt of intense sarcasm. At the top of the building on the University of Wyoming campus in Laramie I beheld this inscription: "Strive On — the Control of Nature is Won. Not Given. . ."  That inscription captured the delusions of humankind for us. Inscribed in stone, it was a part of the pretentiousness I backpack to take a break from. A guy I went to high school with, wrote in his journal about "conquering" the peaks of the Wind River Range. On the last peak that he supposedly "conquered," a gust of wind blew him off the cliff and to his immediate death. The peak was unfazed by his calamity. But his family, of course, was devastated. Yet in a sense that guy reached the pinnacle of our species. And we will suffer a similar fate. We cannot control nature. We cannot conquer nature. In the end, we will all die, and nature does not care. So either we learn to live with nature and enjoy life or work against it and die young. I guess I backpack to remember that and to enjoy the relatives I have left: the wildlife. |
|
davesenesac
Trail Wise!
Our precious life is short within eternity, don't waste it!
Posts: 1,710
|
Post by davesenesac on Oct 5, 2015 9:44:53 GMT -8
The thread seems to be more about what backpacking does for the person versus the definition. So just to get the definition out of the way before continuing on with the former. simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/BackpackingBackpacker or backpacking may refer to: Backpacking (wilderness), hiking in the wild Backpacking (travel), travelling with only a backpack A traveller whose luggage consists of a backpack An inexpensive place to stay, such as a hostel simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/Backpacking_%28wilderness%29 Backpacking is hiking in the outdoors with a backpack full of all your food, clothing, water, and shelter. Usually, backpackers hike in groups to stay safer. They must think to bring first aid supplies, sleeping bags, tents, rain gear, stoves, food and other camping supplies. Backpacking may be done on short or long trips. Sometimes, backpacking groups begin at a trail head with a parking lot and hike over a weekend until they work their way back to the vehicle. On longer trips, groups may settle in at a base camp and hike for weeks or even months if they are more experienced and prepared. When following certain rules, backpackers have the chance to leave the outdoors better than they found them. There are certain practices such as Leave No Trace that teach backpackers and hikers to pack out all waste and help conserve nature in every way possible such as not building fires in dry areas, saving water, and protecting the environment. When backpackers use these skills, they help preserve nature while getting to explore themselves while outside the influence of the rest of the world. |
|
Woodsie
Trail Wise!
Colorado
Posts: 272
|
Post by Woodsie on Oct 5, 2015 9:46:18 GMT -8
Backpacking/hiking to me means happiness. I love backpacking/hiking! I am happiest when I am outdoors.
|
|
desert dweller
Trail Wise!
Power to the Peaceful...Hate does not create.
Posts: 6,291
|
Post by desert dweller on Oct 5, 2015 9:56:14 GMT -8
The thread seems to be more about what backpacking does for the person versus the definition. So just to get the definition out of the way before continuing on with the former. That's why the OP says "is/means". |
|
davesenesac
Trail Wise!
Our precious life is short within eternity, don't waste it!
Posts: 1,710
|
Post by davesenesac on Oct 5, 2015 10:06:49 GMT -8
Obviously given modern gear and technology the wilderness backpacking experience is not quite the same as what one of our ancestors experienced say when going out on overnight hunts for game or forage with fellow people. Nor is it quite similar to the day to day activity of our nomadic ancestors. To start with at least in northern temperate climates, the ability to make and sustain fire was paramount to survival while today such is a trivial element of the experience. And one could go down a list of other things that make our experiences unique versus our ancestors. Additionally the places most of us backpack are far different than those overnight adventures of our ancestors. They usually had other purposes for being away from home. Besides hunting and foraging was also traveling and exploring. For them merely traveling through distances more than a days journey between human settlements might be a more back to nature experience than what we do. But what we do share in common despite their difference to their experiences is sharing more creature-like experiences with our Earthly planet. Thus when we look at the moonlight at night it is just as they did. When we smell the fragrance of pine trees, yeah the same. When we listen to the sound of cascading streams, yes just as they. So it is with these sensual experiences we share the same human experiences. And indeed at night when I hear the crunching sound of twigs in forest beyond where I sleep in the open night in wilderness, my little heart starts pounding and ancient fears rise in this body the same way my ancestral hunters did 20,000 years ago. David www.davidsenesac.com/2015_Trip_Chronicles/2015_Trip-Chronicles-0.html |
|
rebeccad
Trail Wise!
Writing like a maniac
Posts: 12,674
|
Post by rebeccad on Oct 5, 2015 10:23:38 GMT -8
I think the real question here is the "why" of backpacking, since the definition is pretty straightforward. I.e., what it means to us, or what motivates us to do it.
It feels right.
|
|
|
|
Post by 1camper on Oct 6, 2015 4:41:23 GMT -8
Backpacking to me is making yourself comfortable to stay overnight in remote places. The reasons I do this change from day to day..
|
|
|
|
Post by Grizzly James on Oct 9, 2015 14:14:33 GMT -8
Indeed, what you all said! Plus, to go backpacking is a delight to the soul. IT brings me joy. It is medicine, if you will, for a tired soul raveled by the city life.
As I tarry here in my office, with lovely beverage within reach, a flock of Canadian geese mill about the grass just outside the window. Autumn is in the air, leaves turning, some falling, but others still clinging to a summer faded. And I think now of the joys of backpacking. If there was no joy in it, I reckon not many of us would still go. But there is. There has always been. Like unzipping the tent in the morning, flopping an arm out, and just watching how the sunbeams melt through the piney forest. Hearing the tweety birds cavort in the canopy. The river gurgling past your encampment. Ah but the smell of your camp mate brewing the morning coffee, and if you're really lucky, the aromas of sizzling bacon mingling with the pine-scented air. It's the little things like that.
I like also to roam the forest glade and contour like a grizzly bear, eating my way along, in no hurry, investigating interesting things, and napping in the sun where ever appropriate. Indeed, I love to nap where backpacking is concerned. And one need not pry my arm for it either, when in the prettier places. Many a time my trail-mates have had to pull over and wait me out, whilst I go belly up, and boots off, with the cool breeze whistling through my up-turned toe pits. Plants wilt when I do this, and squirrels openly scream, but I tell you henceforth, there is nothing like it. In my youth, I used to scorn such time wasting activities. But in advancing years, it is more of a privilege than anything. Sort of settles a chap into the right gear for wilderness travel, seems like. To nap in the woods is like giving the urban rat race back home a poignantly upward-raised middle finger. And it brings me joy. As does any of a thousand and one other intricacies and delights of the backpacking theater. Whoa be it to the backpacker who grumbles the entire trip, for he's missing the point entirely. But come to think of it, I don't reckon I ever heard of a cranky backpacker. Leastwise not for long, I haven't. That's why backpacking is good for us. That's why it's medicine for the soul. Amen.
-GJ
|
|
