What's your real motivation for Backpack?

Grab your bear can or camp chair, kick your feet up and chew the fat about anything Sierra Nevada related that doesn't quite fit in any of the other forums. Within reason, (and the HST rules and guidelines) this is also an anything goes forum. Tell stories, discuss wilderness issues, music, or whatever else the High Sierra stirs up in your mind.
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Carne_DelMuerto
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Re: What's your real motivation for Backpack?

Post by Carne_DelMuerto »

I was actually thinking about this very topic as I was day hiking in the foothills on one of those amazing days we central Californians are treated to every February.

In short, backpacking into the high Sierra rekindles my wonder and amazement with this existence. Not that I am a spiritual person, but I call the yearly trips my "Sierra Soul Recharge."
Wonder is rock and water and the life that lives in-between.
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Bad Man From Bodie
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Re: What's your real motivation for Backpack?

Post by Bad Man From Bodie »

Fish, Rocks, Hunting!
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Wandering Daisy
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Re: What's your real motivation for Backpack?

Post by Wandering Daisy »

Mountain scenery and exploring. But for most of my life, it was mountaineering and rock climbing. Backpacking was just part of getting to the climb.
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PatrickQuin
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Re: What's your real motivation for Backpack?

Post by PatrickQuin »

I often think about this very question. When i do, can't help but think it is a mildly ridiculous endeavor we engage in... Simply put, at this point i have spent thousands to live my life like i have next to nothing.... But perhaps that is another topic all its own.
I can relate with all your points at one time or another, but I always come back to that feeling of exploration. When i tumble this question around it always brings back images of when i was a kid, driving across California, staring out the window for endless hours. I had then and still have to this day the recurring thought of "I wonder what is on the other side of that ridge?" To that add solitude, pure uninterrupted beauty, and all things waxing poetic i could say about fly fishing a sierra lake, and it seems like a worthwhile endeavor after all.

Another motivation is that feeling of simplicity it brings to life, which would tie into the escape from stress type of response. You very quickly fall into this state of being where your options are so few and so immediate, its a feeling i have a hard time explaining but i often think of it as life distilled. I've found other ways to experience this, i.e. living on a beach in Alaska for extended periods, long extended road trips... but a quick jaunt into the back country puts you there with a few hours and a few miles.
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Strider
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Re: What's your real motivation for Backpack?

Post by Strider »

Carne_DelMuerto wrote:I was actually thinking about this very topic as I was day hiking in the foothills on one of those amazing days we central Californians are treated to every February."
I'm going to be 'stuck in Lodi' one day next week. Do you have a suggestion for a low-elevation day hike between there and Fresno?
'Hike long and perspire'
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BrianF
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Re: What's your real motivation for Backpack?

Post by BrianF »

A combo of 2, 5 and 6 mainly. But really it is because it is just what I do. I started hiking in the hills at 9 yrs. old and went on my first Backpacking trip at 11 (45 yrs ago!). By 17 I was making several trips a year, often solo, and that has continued all my life...so, yes I am addicted!
The direction you are moving in is what matters, not the place you happen to be -Colin Fletcher
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Carne_DelMuerto
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Re: What's your real motivation for Backpack?

Post by Carne_DelMuerto »

Strider--I'll send you a PM so as not to derail this thread.
Wonder is rock and water and the life that lives in-between.
Cross Country
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Re: What's your real motivation for Backpack?

Post by Cross Country »

I love to learn. I've just got to know. That's why I was a school teacher for 30 years. Having a love of learning, I like to take part in others learning too. I therefor love to explore. I like to fish and eat fish in the backcountry. It gave me a secondary focus for backingpacking. I thought, seemingly 1000 times, I wonder what the fishing's like in that lake (on a map). However I know that I just liked being there and fishing also because I repeated several places many times each.
Last edited by Cross Country on Tue Feb 22, 2011 8:13 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Troutdog 59
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Re: What's your real motivation for Backpack?

Post by Troutdog 59 »

Backcountry fishing and the sense of exploration.
Once in a while you can get shown the light
In the strangest places if you look at it right.

The Grateful Dead
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