Music while hiking

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Do you listen to music while hiking?

  • Yes, you have to move your feet to the beat

    Votes: 10 6.7%
  • No, I prefer the sounds of nature

    Votes: 113 75.8%
  • I could care less one way or the other

    Votes: 26 17.4%

  • Total voters
    149
  • Poll closed .
listening to music while hiking can be kinda cool, if you're in the right frame of mind ;)

plug one earphone in, listen to the world with your other ear

if your hiking partner is bugging the crapola out of you, it can be kinda cool to listen to both earphones :)

while skiing out from Chimney Pond a friend once asked what music i was listening to ... i told her it was Steve Kimock, not expecting her to know who Kimock is ... she blew my mind when she told me she had seen him in Vermont the week before ... i blew her mind when i told her i was listening to that show

music can make long approaches more enjoyable - skiing BSP Tote Roads, plodding along hypnotic clambake routes like Lincoln Woods or Ausable Lake

can't sing to save my soul ... as evidenced by the frightened look on faces of hikers i crossed paths with last time i hiked solo, while "singing" along to whatever i was listening to :eek: sorry about that
 
Jay H said:
Am I the only one who doesn't own an mp3 player?
No.

giggy said:
the slamming of treking poles in a rock - every hear how far that sound carries?? - more than an ipod thats for sure
Oh that sound drives me up a wall!!! Tick, tick, tick, tick, click, tick, click, tick
If it's a quiet day and I'm communing with nature, I can hear the person coming from a long ways away. Maybe when I get older I'll view them as a god-send. But for now, I can't stand poles.


I hiked with a walkman a few times. It kept me motivated on the long slog to Owl's head. Hey, I was 10 and needed a pick-me-up every so often. Oddly, enough, Dire Straits "The Walk of Life" was on my cassette that fall day in 1988. And, IIRC, we saw not one person on the trail the whole day.
 
smitty77 said:
No.


Oh that sound drives me up a wall!!! Tick, tick, tick, tick, click, tick, click, tick
If it's a quiet day and I'm communing with nature, I can hear the person coming from a long ways away. Maybe when I get older I'll view them as a god-send. But for now, I can't stand poles.

When you get older and your knees aren't in such great shape I'm sure your view of them will do a 180 degree turn. I use them and never had a problem with others using them before I had to. The way I see it, at least those folks are out hiking and haven't let past injuries or body aches stop them.
 
WhiteMTHike said:
When you get older and your knees aren't in such great shape I'm sure your view of them will do a 180 degree turn. I use them and never had a problem with others using them before I had to. The way I see it, at least those folks are out hiking and haven't let past injuries or body aches stop them.
I don't have a problem with them, and hike with folks that use them. Hike your own hike, even if it requires poles. But to me it's like nails on a chalkboard, and agree with Giggy in that they are far more intrusive on "hearing the sounds of nature" during the normal course of movement along the trail.

Me - I'm praying for my old man's genetics - 60 years old this year and still hammering trails without poles. I think he's dayhiking in the Grand Canyon today in fact. It's true what they say - If you rest, you rust.
 
I prefer earworms

Though I voted "no way", it occurred to me that some inane song is always in my head while hiking, and the tougher the conditions, the louder and more inane the song. The neurologists call that an "ear worm" (originally German, maybe it's more meaningful). Amicus and I have had some good conversations about what tunes go best with what trail... and best of all, no electronics required. As long as you don't sing too loud... :p

Weatherman
 
I already voted "couldn't care less" but I forgot something. If I had them on while hiking the devils path, I couldn't hear the ghosts sneaking up on me. :eek:
 
weatherman said:
Amicus and I have had some good conversations about what tunes go best with what trail... and best of all, no electronics required.

For instance, Knife Edge = Ride of the Valkyries
Scar Ridge 'whack = Dies Irae (unless you luck on to the "magic line," in which case it's I Feel Good).
 
Grumpy said:
... it is heard through my imagination rather than physically through my ears, I never am isolated from my surroundings ...
A beautiful woman is like a melody that you can't get out of your head ... or is it the other way around?

No IPOD for me ... heck, I'm still bickering about the cell phone.
 
I carried an mp3 player for my time on the AT. I had it the entire time and I think I listened to it when I was having a rough day and it helped lift my spirits. I must have used it during a few hours of each of about a dozen days during the entire 6 months. I see nothing wrong with carrying or listening to music on the trail and feel a bit annoyed at the judgement people have about it. To each their own, I live by the HYOH motto.

Music was the thing I missed the most during my thruhike and I was happy to have my mp3 player on those few occasions when I was feeling down but on a trip that long 60 songs get old fast and you mostly don't feel like hearing those songs anymore.

I don't cary my mp3 player on trips shorter than 3 days but will carry it for trips longer than that.
 
I listen to my iPod when I'm out for a run but don't really want it when I'm out hiking. To me, hiking is all about the sights and sounds of nature, and I don't need that extra musical motivation to keep me going when I'm in the woods.

It might be fun to have the iPod when I'm setting up camp, but I have enough gear and don't necessarily wanna cart one more thing into the mountains.
 
alpinista said:
I listen to my iPod when I'm out for a run but don't really want it when I'm out hiking. To me, hiking is all about the sights and sounds of nature, and I don't need that extra musical motivation to keep me going when I'm in the woods.
What about if you're out for a run in the woods? :)

I went for a hike/run last weekend with a friend just finishing the PCT (I hiked N. a bit with him and then ran back)... it was nice having the tunes... just adds to the ambiance, I think. And for some reason my random shuffle was matching up exactly with the terrain - driving music on a good downhill, gentle flutes when I reached the gorgeous cascades where I stopped to get water... it was like Floyd and Oz :D
I'm going for a run somewhere today in the woods and hellz yeah I'm taking the tunes :)
 
I usually don't listen to my mp3 player on the trail. I've tried it before and it didn't work. I stated off, swingin' and snappin' my fingers to Mr. Francis Albert Sinatra and next thing I knew, I was strutin' like a gangsta up the Ammo coolin' out to ma boyz Snoop and Dre. I popped a cap in a couple squirrels 'cause dey disrespected me. That's just not right...

On the other hand, I've been know to come tearing up the road and pull into a campsite with Def Leppard blaring. :D
 
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