View Full Version : Is what you remember different than what others remember?
Does what you remember differ from what you read in others journals? Why do you think that is?
An example: I have been reading how AWFUL the NOBO descent of blood Mt is, yet I remember it as a rather pleasant and easy walk. Has the trail changed that much or was I delusional? Or, is everyone else wrong?
I have also read how bad (shelter, hostel, spring, etc) was, yet I found it OK. Or how wonderful (shelter, hostel, spring, etc) was, & I thought it “way sucked”. In many cases, the description of (shelter, hostel, spring, etc) seems very different than my memory. Making me think it’s not just opinion that varies but perhaps perception. Is shelter X really as small (or large) as I remember it? Was the trail from D to J really that rocky (or smooth)? And was the owner of Hostel B that Rude (or nice)? Was the food at restaurant L really that good, or was I just that hungry?
I really remember the N side of Blood as an easy walk, it even says so in my journal, [“made it to Blood at 3PM, wrote in journal in shelter for a few minutes, ate a granola bar. Just as I left shelter it started to rain, put on rain gear, then easy descent to Neil’s gap”] written up that night at the Yi, and the S side was even easier, according to memory and journal. So, whatsupwiththat.
Any other experiences like that?
Doctari.
Skidsteer
04-11-2007, 08:36
The NOBO ascent of Blood is an easy ascent. The SOBO ascent is only slightly tougher.
I attribute the reports to mostly lack of conditioning of any sort.
An example: I have been reading how AWFUL the NOBO descent of blood Mt is, yet I remember it as a rather pleasant and easy walk. Has the trail changed that much or was I delusional? Or, is everyone else wrong?
I remember the nobo ascent of Blood Mtn as being pretty easy. But yeah, all this stuff is subjective as hell. I remember the nobo descent off Wesser Bald to be hell on wheels (a roller-coaster) but I was dehydrated and miserable.
Yes, I think everyone's experience is so different, and folks remember things very differently. So many factors play into a day, moment by moment. Moods, health, weather and exhaustion being IMHO some of the biggies for hikers that early in the trip.
Not to mention that the hike down Blood NOBO is so poorly marked, missing that hard left turn is certainly a story that the walls at Mtn.Crossings have 'heard' many times. I'm amazed no one has painted a huge ARROW pointing left.
That being said, perhaps it's also because it's the first time you walk on such a large area of exposed rock heading downhill, it's cool, beautiful and interesting, but if you are enjoying yourself at the end of the day on your lasts two miles in to MC (assuming many make that an end of day destination) but end up on your first major 'whoops-went-to-far-and-now-it's-back-uphill-UGH' excursion, it can be a drag.
But this hiker agrees that the hike UP was pretty easy, and I arrived at the summit much quicker than anticipated.
Just one example of a specific location you mention. I can't see how people's memories COULD be the same. Ahhh, the beauty of diversity!
I'm sort of drawn to read some of the journals for that very reason...it's the OH YEAH, I remember that place - and WOW, they had a really rough/easy time on that hard/easy stretch as compared to my experience.
Uh oh, I'm babbling on - a habit picked up before my graduation with honors from The School of Redundancy School.
:)
Frolicking Dinosaurs
04-11-2007, 08:46
I also remember the NOBO ascent as being pretty easy - the NOBO descent was pretty rough on the dinos' old knees.
As for the differences - There is an old saying those who have to investigate families when the parents were battling for custody and alleging abuse / neglect: His side; Her side; The truth lies somewhere in between. Even people who are trying to be honest still will shade the account with their own (sometimes erroneous) perceptions and ideas.
max patch
04-11-2007, 09:22
Many online journals are not written with honesty in mind; they are written with an eye to entertainment.
The only truly "honest" journals for the most part are those that the auhor has no intention of sharing with others.
The last 16 or so miles south of Hot Springs (I was heading north) were my least favorite part of the whole section I did last summer, but I know for certain it was only because of my attitude that they were so dreadful. I was just dirty, irritated, and downright moody, partly b/c I knew I was finishing up my section the next day and was ready to head home. I never heard of anyone having much trouble with this bit--after all, it was just a slight but steady uphill, followed by a few miles of down into the town.
Footslogger
04-11-2007, 10:26
Time really has a tendency to alter my memory of places/things I experienced along the trail. Even MY OWN memory is different than what I journalled.
One clear example is that I hiked northbound in 2003 and last year my wife and I hiked a section (Rangeley to Gorham) southbound. Some things were exactly as I remembered them (albeit "backwards") but others were like night and day in terms of difference.
Also, I find that memory is rather selective in terms of what was hard/easy from my thru. I was in one frame of mind in 2003 and when I rehike sections now I view them differently, since I'm only out there for a short while.
'Slogger
fiddlehead
04-11-2007, 10:44
I always think that hiking is fun.
Reading others journals, i don't get that feeling.
I hear complaints about: bugs, terrain, rain, garbage, farting, dogs, snoring, PO hours, AMC, privys, water quality, etc.
Way too much whining in my opinion.
superman
04-11-2007, 11:13
In 99 I hiked the Long Trail. That was a drought year, the bugs were bad and it was hot. In 2000 when I got to Vermont the water was running, no bugs and cool temps. It was the same place at a different season as it was moving towards fall.
Pat from Maine and I met on the AT but only hiked together for a short time. Since 2000 we have re-visited the AT many times and in many different places. It is very common for us both to have a completely different picture of that part of the AT. An AT hike is very fluid and changing due to weather, people, moods, conditioning and a hundred other variables. I can see why people go back and hike it again and again. My guess is that each AT hike is different. Of course there are the overlapping similarities but the differences add the spice.
Every watch the movie Rashomon? http://imdb.com/title/tt0042876/
Hailed as one of Kurosawa's finest movies.
It is on my mind as I plan on seeing it this Sunday.
In any case, the theme is one of something very prevalent in daily life..and for trail experiences.
What happens on the trail is viewed differently based on your mental state, your experiences, your personality.
What is truth? The truth depends upon how you view it.
What can be miserable climb in bad weather can be a wonderful, exhilarting,almost atavisitic experience for another person.
Both memories are true; both memories are different.
Hiking and whining do seem to go together, guess it's part of the game out there! :)
sherrill
04-11-2007, 12:12
Different people will have different perspectives on things like the trail and just life in general. My perspective is that if I'm out hiking even the bad is all good.
Uphill is downhill if you go in the opposite direction :)
bigmac_in
04-11-2007, 12:26
You know what they say - Opinions are like arseholes, everybody has one.
Having said that, we did the NOBO ascent of Blood last year. I thought it was a fairly easy ascent, although we camped at the slaughter gap campsites. I think I would have found the rest of the climb a little hard had we continued after already hiking 14 miles that day. I remember thinking on the way down "this would be a much harder climb", but it was a fairly easy descent. I can see why Dino's knees were barking, however.
Footslogger
04-11-2007, 12:31
Uphill is downhill if you go in the opposite direction :)
=================================
How true ...but even allowing for that it's amazing how different things can seem when you reverse direction on the trail.
'Slogger
fiddlehead
04-11-2007, 18:36
Hiking and whining do seem to go together, guess it's part of the game out there! :)
I whine about working too much, cops pulling me over, dogs running out in front of my motorcycle, our drummer speeding up the songs, etc. These are things i don't like in my life.
Whining about hiking seems a bit silly to me. If you don't like it, why are you there?
Whining about hiking seems a bit silly to me. If you don't like it, why are you there?
Yes, indeedy. It's taken me a long time to figure that out. It is, after all, a voluntary activity. No point doing it if it's not fun or rewarding in some way. There's just no point getting pi$$ed at the trail.
Even so, there are moments when I'll shake my fist at the sky and yell, "You bastards!" Somehow that makes me feel better.
Someone who flows as one with the A.T. never whines.
Skidsteer
04-11-2007, 20:49
Yes, indeedy. It's taken me a long time to figure that out. It is, after all, a voluntary activity. No point doing it if it's not fun or rewarding in some way. There's just no point getting pi$$ed at the trail.
Even so, there are moments when I'll shake my fist at the sky and yell, "You bastards!" Somehow that makes me feel better.
The Lieutenant Dan approach.
I find it brings a measure of satisfaction regardless of location.
I am all astonishment that some hikers have apparently never fallen down, never gotten a blister or a sore muscle or a sunburn or a bug bite, or been hungry or thirsty or hot or cold, or had a slug in their shoe, or had a nasty rain dribbling cold water down their necks for a few hours too long.
Or maybe what you're perceiving as "whining" is honesty. Being honest about what is happening, and that a long hike is not the same as floating on Cloud 9 every minute of every day for six months. There is pain, but there is also beauty. There is desolation, and exhilaration. The deeper the valley, the greater the victory in climbing out of it.
Sure, there is bound to be lots of whining in journals. Most people who attempt thru-hikes quit.
And it's a lot easier to explain why you're pissed off than to capture the joy.
Marta/Five-Leaf
Almost There
04-11-2007, 21:57
Some people never remember things being as bad as they were, or have a more stunted memory of just how steep the trail was. For example, I took my wife on a hike and I remembered the trail being much more gradual than it was, so I spent the afternoon listening to her talk about just how hard the trail was...for her. Everyone's perspective is different. The first time hiking down Blood I had a bad Iliotibial Band and it sucked, the second time, not such a big deal.
I've been dehydrated a couple of times and those days were the worst.
Just hiked the Art Loeb Trail and from my perspective it was the hardest trail I have ever hiked, this includes the few hundred miles I have done on the AT, granted getting lost and running out of water near the end of the last day helps to color this experience. To each his own, we keep going back so there has to be something redeeming about it.
Frolicking Dinosaurs
04-11-2007, 22:17
I am all astonishment that some hikers have apparently never fallen down, never gotten a blister or a sore muscle or a sunburn or a bug bite, or been hungry or thirsty or hot or cold, or had a slug in their shoe, or had a nasty rain dribbling cold water down their necks for a few hours too long.
Or maybe what you're perceiving as "whining" is honesty. Being honest about what is happening, and that a long hike is not the same as floating on Cloud 9 every minute of every day for six months. There is pain, but there is also beauty. There is desolation, and exhilaration. The deeper the valley, the greater the victory in climbing out of it.
Sure, there is bound to be lots of whining in journals. Most people who attempt thru-hikes quit.
And it's a lot easier to explain why you're pissed off than to capture the joy.
Marta/Five-LeafVery well said. The joy is in the journey - and joy rarely comes without pain and suffering. Acknowledging reality isn't whining. Whining is fussing when there isn't anything to fuss about.
I think alot of the whining is just the end result of a lot of little things building up until you have to complain about something. I still laugh out loud when I read my journal from the Grand Canyon. The only thing I had to whine about after 6 days was at the end of my hike, where the trail maintainers had just been. I griped for half a page about the "superhighway in the sand" that had replaced the thin, barely visible trail I walked in on. Not a single complaint about it being 120 at the bottom. Go figure.:rolleyes:
The north bound descent off Blood Mtn. down to Walasi-yi was rough on my knees and I thought the trail there was in bad shape. Also, the descent down from Cold Spring Shelter to NOC was awful, the worst in my hiking experience so far. Maybe I'm just a wimp though.
Wanderingson
04-12-2007, 06:01
TWO WORDS:
Good Medication