escapism and the trail

[sloopjonboswell]

anybody wanna talk about it?

[sofaking]

isn't that what it's for?

[Captain]

what is escapism

[take-a-knee]

Just read the original version of Colin Fletcher's Complete Walker. He addressed it much better than most of us here could.

[Lone Wolf]

what is escapism

yeah, really

[Marta]

The trail can be an escape from regular life; but for a lot of people, regular life soon becomes much more attractive after a stint on the trail.

Trail life and town life complement each other nicely.

[warren doyle]

Escaping to? or escaping from?

[Tipi Walter]

For hundreds of thousands of years humans lived outdoors, hiked everywhere, slept in crude shelters and formulated intricate views regarding nature and their relationship with nature. You're wrong to think getting off the grid and out of the syphilized cities and into the woods is escapism, it's the other way around. Leaving the woods for the mad marts of men is escapism, embracing what we consider to be 'a higher standard of living' and brainwashed with the propaganda of 'progress' to me constitutes escapism.

[Narwhalin]

For hundreds of thousands of years humans lived outdoors, hiked everywhere, slept in crude shelters and formulated intricate views regarding nature and their relationship with nature. You're wrong to think getting off the grid and out of the syphilized cities and into the woods is escapism, it's the other way around. Leaving the woods for the mad marts of men is escapism, embracing what we consider to be 'a higher standard of living' and brainwashed with the propaganda of 'progress' to me constitutes escapism.

Wow. Well put.

[Wise Old Owl]

For me its escape to - To find untouched areas of man in the wilderness of touched area's of God. To see nature in its glory without the zoo. What most people experience god in a wooden box with a steeple, I find in the woods high on a mountaintop. It might take me a few days of journey to get there, but the road isn't littered with stuck cars running out of gas on the highway to heaven.

Thank you Tipi Walter!

[sasquatch2014]

While getting out to the trail allows me to escape the day to day trappings of my normal life it runs me right into the face of my own self. By this I mean that the time on the trail is often a time of reflection and solitude. Interupted at times with other hikers but I am mainly left to myself with my thoughts and where ever these may tend to wander. Sometimes this can be a tough company to keep and other times it is the best friend in the world. I am luck that I am comfortable enough with my own company but I can conceed that this may not be the case for others and getting back to all the distractions of the real world is a good way to escape this looking glass.

[4eyedbuzzard]

For hundreds of thousands of years humans lived outdoors, hiked everywhere, slept in crude shelters and formulated intricate views regarding nature and their relationship with nature. You're wrong to think getting off the grid and out of the syphilized cities and into the woods is escapism, it's the other way around. Leaving the woods for the mad marts of men is escapism, embracing what we consider to be 'a higher standard of living' and brainwashed with the propaganda of 'progress' to me constitutes escapism.

I absolutely do not agree that technological and cultural progress is worse than what preceeded it. I think we are very lucky to be able to choose to escape or not to almost wherever we want, and to enjoy modern conveniences both on and off the trail. I don't think the trappings of modern society are all bad. Just a little over 100 years ago there were few of the comforts we take for granted. Life was much more of a daily survival struggle, both in the cities and in the woods. Clean water, indoor plumbing, refrigeration, medicine, longer life expectancy... the good list goes on and on. Without the products of "wicked" industrialization(like nylon, metals, plastics, etc), most of us would never have either the time or technological products to enjoy the woods. We'd likely be busy working the fields, out on the fishing boat, tending the stock, etc. Life was much harder years ago. We have it easy by comparison.

Its good that MacKaye, Muir, and all the others recognized the need to preserve some wilderness settings for us to recreate in.

[Tipi Walter]

I absolutely do not agree that technological and cultural progress is worse than what preceeded it. I think we are very lucky to be able to choose to escape or not to almost wherever we want, and to enjoy modern conveniences both on and off the trail. I don't think the trappings of modern society are all bad. Just a little over 100 years ago there were few of the comforts we take for granted. Life was much more of a daily survival struggle, both in the cities and in the woods. Clean water, indoor plumbing, refrigeration, medicine, longer life expectancy... the good list goes on and on. Without the products of "wicked" industrialization(like nylon, metals, plastics, etc), most of us would never have either the time or technological products to enjoy the woods. We'd likely be busy working the fields, out on the fishing boat, tending the stock, etc. Life was much harder years ago. We have it easy by comparison.

Its good that MacKaye, Muir, and all the others recognized the need to preserve some wilderness settings for us to recreate in.

If life is so much better today, why is there a need to preserve wilderness? Some would say a drastic need? How could life be better when there is less and less wilderness? You also hint that our good and easy modernity comes at the sacrifice of wilderness when you mention MacKaye and Muir trying to preserve wilderness. Preserve it from what? Humans?

You also say that w/o the products of industrialization, most of us would hardly get to enjoy the woods. I'll repeat myself: For hundreds of thousands of years humans lived outdoors, hiked everywhere, etc(i.e. before industrialization). So, how has industry now allowed us to enjoy the woods more than before? It seems we've been doing so since the beginning.

[rafe]

The difference, Tipi, is that back in the old days when folks trekked, by foot, from point A to point B, they did it because they needed to -- they didn't call it "hiking."

I do regret that modern life has ravaged the wilderness and disconnected us from it. That's a shame. But I also appreciate the benefits of modern (western) life -- eg., relative freedom from hunger, pain, disease, etc. It's not all bad. But we would do well to consider (or reconsider) the balance.

I don't see cities and civilization as all bad. We wouldn't be having this conversation without it. Without advances in medicine over the last 50-100 years, some or most of us would have succumbed to injury, illness or disease by now.

[4eyedbuzzard]

First off, humans like us(anatomically modern, aka Cro-Magnon) have only been around for some 50 thousand years or so - not hundreds of thousands as you suggest. And early on it appears that as a species we began forming complex societies, manipulating and controlling our environment, dividing labor, etc. Roughly 10 - 15 thousand years ago agriculture began to dominate our species way of life, replacing the wandering hunter-gatherer-scavenger mode of survival. Larger more complex civilizations evolved, and the rest is pretty much just history. Civilization and technology flourishes because it is more efficient for the species and better utilizes the carrying capacity of the local ecosystem - it is inevitable. Life always chooses efficiency.

That you do not personally care for modern industrial society and would prefer to wander and "live off the land" is your personal choice, and not one truly shared by many others. The natural state of man is not that of a hunter-gatherer-scavenger. The true natural state is that that of a social being that forms complex societies and utilizes it's environment. The proof of this is that it happened and exists. We are exactly as we were destined to become, no more - no less.

A primitive, simplistic life is a nice romantic notion - but it is ultimately an escape from working toward solving the problems of the world we are born into. It just isn't a realistic solution on the whole - it's simply selfish avoidance/escape. Yes, there are a lot of problems in present society. But historically all societies have had problems. Our's are just specific to our place and time in history. Escaping is fine for a duration, but humans simply cannot all run from the society into which they are born. It just isn't realistic.

[dessertrat]

While getting out to the trail allows me to escape the day to day trappings of my normal life it runs me right into the face of my own self. By this I mean that the time on the trail is often a time of reflection and solitude. Interupted at times with other hikers but I am mainly left to myself with my thoughts and where ever these may tend to wander. Sometimes this can be a tough company to keep and other times it is the best friend in the world. I am luck that I am comfortable enough with my own company but I can conceed that this may not be the case for others and getting back to all the distractions of the real world is a good way to escape this looking glass.

Well put. I feel much the same. I almost always hike alone, not just for convenience, but for this reason.

[d'shadow]

evil modern technology......sure, give up goretex, high tech hiking equipment...go back to cotton and wool products, leather boots...canvas back packs...yeah, good idea....

[sofaking]

evil modern technology......sure, give up goretex, high tech hiking equipment...go back to cotton and wool products, leather boots...canvas back packs...yeah, good idea....

yeah, 'cause none of that stuff worked?

[sofaking]

i wonder how people like hillary and shackelton hid their gore-tex for so long...

[d'shadow]

yeah, 'cause none of that stuff worked?

Tell ya what, you get into the old gear and go for a hike..when you get back, tell me which type of gear you prefer. I will take goretex and modern gear over what we used to use any day and twice on Sunday. Different strokes for different folks