I don't understand why people frame hiking challenges as conquering nature. It's clearly conquering your own internal limitations, not anything external. But framing aside, challenging yourself is a great thing to do.
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Yeahhhh. I have always hated hiking with a group, because I want to stop and look at the neat flora and fauna, then everybody gets pissy at me for holding up the group.
Fuck me for wanting to know more about the shit that lives here, I guess.
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Is this really an issue though? Whatever gets people a bit closer to nature seems good to me
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ive seen Chinese tourists deface trees so it's not just America
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This is a clickbait/ragebait headline, which has little to do with the article itself.
The article itself is essentially a travel blog post about this guy's vacation and the very emotional emotions he experienced during it.
The title and post content are just weirdly judgemental nonsense. If you want to go into nature to lay under a tree and listen to crickets chirp, that's great. Do that. But if you want to go into nature to challenge yourself, that's also great, you can do that, too. If someone shows up at a trailhead and says "Imma run around this loop and try really hard", then their experience will be different from listening to crickets chirp, but no less legitimate - they will feel their body moving, their lungs burning, their heart pounding. The wind on their face and their sweat on their skin. And they will finish with a visceral experience of being in that particular place, doing that particular thing, at that particular time. But importantly, they were able to have that experience because they set the goal "run around the loop".
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I've read the article and a lot of the opinions stated in this thread. You gotta let go of this one, dog. People live their lives the way they want to, and as long as it's harmless to others it's not anybody else's business.
That said, way too many generalizations both implicit and explicit here, including in the article itself. It sounds like the aim of the article and comments made are just looking for someone to be angry at. But I'd wager that those people actually out experiencing, even just existing in, nature are not the ones to whom that anger should be pointed. Redirect your focus, don't attack your fellow people.
As long as they're not defacing, degrading, or destroying anything, its nobodies business how another person appreciates nature. Wtf is this gatekeeping bullshit?
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Challenging yourself against nature is a valid way to appreciate it; it can help you humble yourself and get in tune with your body and build a connection to nature.
Nature does not have to be a shared experience to be valid, doing stuff by yourself is an ok way to experience nature, too.
You're being pretty judgemental of how people like to enjoy nature, when you should be encouraging people to enjoy nature.
That isn't solarpunk.
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That happens to every hobby in the U.S. Passionate people share the things they love and eventually a whole subgroup turns it into a competition and eventually a business. It's terrible.
As an Appalachian I see much of the same harm Joe Whittle is witnessing and describing, however I see the root issue differently. The problem isn't hikers, the problem is a white supremacist culture that devalues downtime. Perhaps I simply have a different perspective on what "hiking culture" is. But I see these assaults on our trees and our cairns through similar eyes. Too many Outsiders come to this land without any reverence for that the land does not exist in service of them, and that they are guests on it. They see the people who live on the land, be they Cherokee, Lenape, Melungeon, or Appalachian as being either backwards, in the way, or in some way mystically other from themselves. Something other than truly human, worthy of respect or listening to for wisdom.
Then again, I'm also realizing in this moment that I have sat and listened to Joe speak. We have eaten together. He and I share many of the same outlooks, and perhaps what I am experiencing right now is that I am not who he is trying to speak to through this article. I'm going to spend some time reflecting on this.
I will say this. The hiking culture I grew up in emphasizes the importance of both having hikes and trail runs where you have maintained goals that you seek to achieve, but also days where you are just out on the trail. You are not meant to leave any announcement of your presence to anyone else on the mountain. You are meant to leave the trail beautiful and enjoyable for others. You frequently hear "Take nothing but photos, leave only footprints" however the slogan I was presented was "Tread lightly and treasure your memories." I much prefer our version. Do not tramp, tromp, or traipse. Walk, run, or bike with purpose. Not the purpose of achieving anything, I mean, but the purpose of taking consideration to all of the other denizens you are connected with in the woods. And if you are witnessing the world around you through a lens, you are not truly witnessing it, instead secondarily observing it.
Again, this is not to say you shouldn't, if you enjoy taking photos in the woods, stop. Merely that you should spend some time in the woods without a camera, only the emergency beacon equipment you need in case you are injured.
JFC dude/dudette/whatever, calm down.
Does your hippy-ass even know what a camp-site police-call is? (hint: it's not the one where law enforcement get's involved, at-all) I'll bet you hate scouting with a burning passion too.
I like my crickets chirping, frogs croaking, crows cawing, maybe even an owl hooting around sun-rise with a cigarette, an energy-drink, and a mild(or not) post-bourbon hangover. I'll bet you have a problem with that too.
If that's not the persona you're trying to portray, realize its exactly what's coming through in your comments.
You're ego is sprinkled all-over the place here, and it looks a lot like self-fellation resulting in un-solicited jizz and excrement. I guess at least its bio-degradable, but you need a shower after this hike as much as any gym-bro, and likely smell worse for the lack of exertion-sweat to compete with all that "not"-ego.
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America's culture is built on ego.
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