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I'm a senior citizen that read The Lord of the Rings book series years ago to my kids.
I've had more odd thoughts long distance hiking than I ever imagined as being possible.....but never even vaguely anything like this...
https://www.outsideonline.com/240021...-fantasy-books
Fascinating! I think you're right though--it was one of my obsessions when I was a kid
I think people who want to change and change something else even if romanticizing or are going through significant changes or seek adventure and exploration and innovation and creativity equally embracing of the possibilities within the unknown rather than what is only known may seek fantasy but also seek motivational and self help and collective resources while also raising a larger whole. Possibly, a it's the grass is always greener on the other side of the fence is involved. I don't believe this is always about fantasizing. It's about imagination and making these images a tangible reality...which is so fulfilling. It makes one feel alive, dynamic, challenged, moving forward, not stagnant not only somehow bettering themselves but a larger whole. I have an extended version of this quote next to a mirror I read every morning. It is by someone whom I admire, astronaut Ellison Onizuka from Hawaii where there is a center dedicated to the life of this fallen astronaut. Every generation has the obligation to free men's minds for a look at new worlds . . . to look out from a higher plateau than the last generation.
Ellison Onizuka
I include myself in having an obligation to free my own mind to continually reach for a higher plateau.
Right below that I read every morning:
“Imagination is more important than knowledge. For knowledge is limited to all we now know and understand, while imagination embraces the entire world, and all there ever will be to know and understand.”
― Albert Einstein
That little Hobbit village appeals for the serenity and communion with Nature it represents to me.
Interesting.... I never associated the two things, but of course, duh, makes sense! I read the LOTR first as a teen (and the hobbit), then re-read the entire suite of books many times throughout my adulthood, never gets old, just like backpacking, no matter what, never gets old. Thanks for sharing that article!
All stories featuring long treks, whether fiction, non-fiction or fantasy, have always appealed to me.
I wonder why I don't remember ever encountering a LOTR-named hiker? Was there a recent resurgence in 2017, or was it just that hiker's trail family?
I think we tend to hike with like-minded folks. For instance, many of my trail family are also touring cyclists. (And then on a post-hike XC bike tour, I ended up traveling with an AT thru hiker.)
Nicely written article--thanks.
I've always thought of this stuff. Despite growing up mostly in the woods, a lot of my early information about nature came from fantasy books. The classic woodsman who could walk through the woods quietly without breaking sticks. (Yeah, right.) Tracking, or escaping tracking by stepping on rocks, walking in rivers, noticing broken spider webs, bent leaves, etc. I was very disappointed at the lack of convenient hollow logs to hide in, and caves to shelter from storms, in the real world.
I can relate to Why Thru-Hikers Are Obsessed with Fantasy Books article. Although never on the Lord of the Rings train, every year a hiker named Recalc escapes from The Matrix and takes over my hike. He returns to The Matrix when the hike is completed. This has become a standing joke to my family, because most of them have never seen the movie.:)