Hiking is less fun in the internet age

[Mike P.]

I started hunting as a teen and ended up hiking after I realized I liked the walking in the woods part better. Same is said about my golf game which often sent me in the woods looking for my ball. After awhile it made more sense to carry the proper bag in the woods.

[skiguy]

I started hunting as a teen and ended up hiking after I realized I liked the walking in the woods part better. Same is said about my golf game which often sent me in the woods looking for my ball. After awhile it made more sense to carry the proper bag in the woods.

LOL! Golf does have it's merits.

[bikehikeskifish]

So there are more people everywhere...

Yes. There are more people, and yet the size of the Forest and the associated trail network has not changed.

Tim

[DayTrip]

After awhile it made more sense to carry the proper bag in the woods.

That's a great line! And incidentally an example of another sport I used to like but gave up because it got so damn crowded. Impossible to get out without a tee time anymore, everyone is overboard with reading putts and hitting the perfect putt, etc. 6 hour rounds for $100+ got tired pretty fast. I could probably say the same about down hill skiiing too, although the soaring price of lift tickets was more of a factor than huge lift lines. Same solutions to these problems too: go midweek. Yah, if you can.

[Raven]

Brian. An interesting distraction from....well, I wasn't doing much. My thoughts:

1) Parking challenges at EVERY trailhead.

I don't often see this but I do hike often in areas farther north and away from the crowds. If I go to Franconia, I'm on trail before sunrise, weekday. I've looked down that foggy ridge at dawn all to myself (seemingly anyway). I've also had to say "excuse me" on that ridge.

2) Major trails are crowded. All of them.

This is why I prefer areas with a network of trails. If there's one main trail all are funneled to, it gets crowds. I tend to pick the path less traveled and will add a mile or two to take secondary trails when possible.

3) Back country shelters and tentsites are invariably full early

Are they? I know a few hot spots get jammed. I don't backpack with enough regularity to comment. I do often carry a bivy sack so no tent site or shelter is necessary.

4) There's a perception of a 'right' way to do everything in the woods;

People have opinions. I do what I think is right in the woods regardless of the company. No disrespect to others but I understand how to tread lightly. I'm always open to new ideas, but I'm pretty solid in mine.

5) LNT is hyper-important.....

I think LNT is hyper important but not all points are equal. I never want to see an axe being carried for standing trees, live or dead. Poop on trail? Nah. Protect your springs? Great idea, but I don't trust the people anymore. I hiked years without treating water. No more. This is my biggest disappointment from LNT.

6) EVERYTHING has been done.

If it doesn't pick my pocket or break my arm, what others do does not matter to me. What I do matters. (Variation of a Jefferson quote). I didn't care that someone had thru hiked the AT before me. I knew others had done the 48, knew a couple hundred had done them in winter when I started that quest 20ish years ago. When I decided to solo them in winter, I never asked about the history of that. I really don't care. My adventures in that journey were epic....extraordinary....raw...beautiful.

I can boil all this down to one thing I do that keeps it real for me. Although I read VFTT here and there and read FB, I don't research online at all. I pick a mountain, use maps, lists, paperback guide books. I do the same thing I did in the nineties. I'm just a little wiser now with a few more white beard hairs.

Good thread.

[Mike P.]

That's a great line! And incidentally an example of another sport I used to like but gave up because it got so damn crowded. Impossible to get out without a tee time anymore, everyone is overboard with reading putts and hitting the perfect putt, etc. 6 hour rounds for $100+ got tired pretty fast. I could probably say the same about down hill skiiing too, although the soaring price of lift tickets was more of a factor than huge lift lines. Same solutions to these problems too: go midweek. Yah, if you can.

I got sick of it when you couldn't play anymore in four hours and it started trending to five.

At one time in Manchester CT, the student membership was $60. a year all you could play. You couldn't go out from 10-2 and on Ladies' Day, you had to wait until the groups with Tee times got off the first tee. In summer, we got dropped off in the AM, played 18, ate lunch and then played another 18 before dark and our ride returned. (Apparently my parents heard from the neighbors that you can't kick your kids outdoors all summer, they are terrorizing the neighborhood, so with our paper route money (kids went out in the Am delivering papers on bikes like adults now do in cars, & we went to strangers homes at night to get $1.25, often times invited inside while they hunted for change....) we bought student memberships.

[JoshandBaron]

3) Back country shelters and tentsites are invariably full early

Are they? I know a few hot spots get jammed. I don't backpack with enough regularity to comment. I do often carry a bivy sack so no tent site or shelter is necessary.

I exclusively overnight and can affirm that this is pretty much true. If not full, fuller. Did a week-long Dry River/Wild River trip this past summer and every campsite in both Wildernesses had people at them midweek save for Perkins Notch. Weekend trips forget about it. Even the winter trips are becoming more crowded at established sites. I almost gave up last year when I went 6 trips in a row sharing campsites.

[Raven]

I exclusively overnight and can affirm that this is pretty much true. If not full, fuller. Did a week-long Dry River/Wild River trip this past summer and every campsite in both Wildernesses had people at them midweek save for Perkins Notch. Weekend trips forget about it. Even the winter trips are becoming more crowded at established sites. I almost gave up last year when I went 6 trips in a row sharing campsites.

Ouch....I tend to not backpack in warm months so the summer thing I avoid. I've seen Guyot jammed though on the way by.

More reason to carry that hammock I've got I suppose. I tend to pick odd locations or very "off" days to overnight. Same reason I visit caves and such on rainy days...no crowd.