What keeps you coming back?

[LIhikers]

So, you say you like backpacking.
So much so that you go out in the cold of winter, the scortching heat of summer, the wet and windy spring time and the fall with all that it brings. You spend day after day unshowered, unkempt, and wearing the same dirty clothes. You slog through trails covered with water, mud and snow while carrying a considerable weight on your back. Your family and friends don't understand your desire to "leave it all behind" while you go hiking and in fact, some of them suspect you're daft.

Now, tell me why you keep returning to backpacking.

[X-LinkedHiker]

I do it because nothing else is as pure. Knowing that you can only return home safely because you took care of yourself and who your with is a good feeling every time you make it home. But beyond all of that, it is just too beautiful not to be outside trekking up the side of a mountain.

And because of places like this.

[Tipi Walter]

I think the question should be, "Why do we keep returning to towns, flush toilets and electricity?" In my case, it has to do with family responsibilites. Otherwise, I'd go back to living out permanently.

In any case, the answer to your question is a complex one and has been studied by men and women for centuries. And I just don't feel up to a long screed on the subject(man vs nature, etc).

[buff_jeff]

The views, the challenge, feeling of getting away, sense of adventure

[buff_jeff]

I think the question should be, "Why do we keep returning to towns, flush toilets and electricity?" In my case, it has to do with family responsibilites. Otherwise, I'd go back to living out permanently.

In any case, the answer to your question is a complex one and has been studied by men and women for centuries. And I just don't feel up to a long screed on the subject(man vs nature, etc).

For me, sometimes those rainy, miserable nights in the woods make me appreciate "society," and sometimes "society" makes me appreciate a lonely night in the woods.

[Ghosthiker]

There are stills trails I haven't walked, yet.

[SlackPacking]

For me, sometimes those rainy, miserable nights in the woods make me appreciate "society," and sometimes "society" makes me appreciate a lonely night in the woods.

Yes!!! and then there are days like these and if they don't get it after that then let them keep their concrete jungle...

[warraghiyagey]

What Tipi Walter said for sure.
And because I feel the most alive out 'there.'
And because of this.

[wakapak]

What Tipi Walter said for sure.
And because I feel the most alive out 'there.'

Amen to that!! For me, the bigger question is this: what keeps me away from being out there more than i'd like to admit?

as i told someone not too long ago...the wildnerness, nature and the mountains are all my 'church'....

[warraghiyagey]

as i told someone not too long ago...the wildnerness, nature and the mountains are all my 'church'....

Yes, yes, it is where I feel closest to the grand Artist.

[Jim Adams]

OMG, strange that you should ask today!
Every March is so much of a b***h for me....Springer Fever just kicks my a$$ every day..........well.....it is no big secret on WB how I feel about the desert and my PCT hike....lets just say I was a little disappointed. THIS MORNING I AWOKE WITH PCT FEVER!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh no, not April too!
Now I read this question and suddenly the answer came to me. The sights are indeed great and the time out there is fun for the most part but to me, the answer is the personal freedom...probably more personal freedom than is available day to day anywhere else. Makes me better understand what the Forefathers of America were truely searching and fighting for......
.....damn I hope this doesn't last through all of April!

geek

[Lilred]

I have recently realized the reason I like to go out in the woods so much. I think my soul has a lot to do with it. In my everyday life I am surrounded by man made things; buildings, cars, concrete, etc.... In the woods, I'm surrounded by God made things. I sometimes wonder myself why I keep going out. I'm not sure I have the choice, it may be my soul wanting to be nearer to God than anything I can figure out. Then, of course, there is the thrill of the view from a mountaintop. Can't beat that!

[leeki pole]

Is it stopping at a cool running stream to fill your water bottle with the wildflowers blooming? Is it taking a rest break on a boulder overlooking a magnificent vista? Is it walking through the green tunnel just after sunrise, with the mist making the pathway glow in heavenly delight? Or a sunset, so absolutely spectacular that you don't even take a picture because you know your picture couldn't do it justice? These memories are what make me come back wet, tired, stinky and hungry. And with a huge smile on my face and tears in my eyes.

[X-LinkedHiker]

can't really beat that.
But I guess I can try.

Always nice just to run into something like this just scaling the side of a mountain top.

[A-Train]

For me it is, and has been, always about the money. And the chicks.

[X-LinkedHiker]

Ha ha, good answer A-Train. You know all those undiscovered naked Appalachian Trail chicks just running around. Who wouldn't put that on the top of their list.

[hnryclay]

peaceful solitude

[Excitable Hiker]

Bibles is shelters.

[88BlueGT]

the lack of people nagging and having no stress, the views and for me a big thing when backpacking is, when I get somewhere with a wonderful view everything becomes justified. And I always feel a sense of accomplishment knowing that I had to actually work to see what I'm seeing at the moment, you cant just drive your car or anything else... sounds stupid but thats how I think of it most of the time.

And my favorite and sort of a tradition is, as soon as start a hike and am deep enough into the woods where I can no longer hear sounds of society (cars, other humans, etc.) I like to let out a big yell (sometimes words, sometimes just venting yells lol) and feel so small in the world surrounding me.

[Tipi Walter]

Here's some of the reasons I go out:

Rock on the North Fork Citico.
Backpackers on Bob Bald.
Johnny B and Little Mitten climbing to the Bob.
Tipi home in the snow(NC).
Little Mitten sitting on the Bald River Cascades.
The same place in flood stage.

BTW, how do you guys attach large images??