Mt. Whitney Portal Store & Hostel Forums General Mt. Whitney Portal Store Message Board hiking with I-pods

p.s. In saying "five minutes", I'm speaking figuratively. I actually spent closer to an hour cleaning up after those poor, less educated others. Point is that there were literally so many abandoned wagbags that in about five minutes I could find that many.

Getting back to the topic, I like to listen to various types of music when I run or hike. When hiking in hard locations I like to listen to what I call "motivational music". Having been in the Marines, I like to listen to the Marine Hymn, and other motivational tunes when the going gets tough! Other than that I like to listen to 70 & 80s pop/rock music.

Thanks Randy.

Nature provides all of the music I need while hiking and absorbing as much of it as I can is the main reason I visit in the first place. Besides; if I want to hear music I simply focus on what is currently playing in my head which is all the time!
That being said, to each their own.

hoser

Are you by chance a musician?
I am, and always have music floating around in my head, too.
I go to the montains and outdoors for the same reasons, by the way.

CaT

David,

At risk of "hijacking" this rambling thread, I just want to say that I think you have a great attitude and your philosophy is a breath of fresh air. I often think that if it weren't for my cousin, who was a Sierra Club member and long ago taught me a lot of these hiking/backpacking/camping rules that now seem obvious, I probably would at least in some way qualify as an idiot in the wilderness. And probably do for some people just by posting this response.

And now, it sounds like some want to run him for president...8^)

This sounds very naive to me. While they're a rarity in wilderness areas, there are plenty of people who, especially in a group of their peers with "party" on their mind, would at least bully anyone who complained into leaving. You have to judge by the individual situation, but to say that there's no danger in confronting people in wilderness areas is downright dangerous.

"Tattle-tale"? This is not ten year old whining to mommy, these are adults. Would you turn in a drunk driver? Speeder? Robber or mugger? The rules and penalties are made for a reason, to deal with people who don't have the sense to realize that they're not the only ones in the world, and their behavior has to be a compromise in order to make it reasonable for all.

So you see a group of mindless jerks blasting their radio on top of Whitney, ignoring anyone around them or their wishes, and you're worried about complaining to the ranger, thinking it'll make you a "tattle-tale". Then what, will they sing the tattle tale song? 8^)

The initial message, I believe, was feeling happy to see someone cited for such rude behavior...it didn't even involve anyone telling anyone. Apparently some think we should empathize with the "poor, misguided" jerks, and declare the rangers as villains.

Thanks, but I'll continue to smile when I see inconsiderate people, who think they're too good for the rules, reap whatever consequences they get.

honest my I-pod is not that loud- but it gets me up some of the steep stuff

Yeah, I'm happy I have my IPod around on the down-climbs. Helps forestall my mind somewhat from going "are we back at the trailhead yet?"

Maybe it is the way I speak to people, the fact that I carry myself confidently, or maybe I've just been lucky and never had a run in with these trail thugs that you've all met. I have never had someone over react if I let them know that something they're doing isn't okay. Especially when their crime is something as minute as playing loud music, I don't expect these criminals to be quick to violence. As an example, I was mountain biking not to long ago in Sycamore Canyon (a local trail that is heavily populated with hikers and bikers of all experience levels because it ends at the beach) and I came upon a group of 3 guys in their early 20's that could have easily beat the crap out of me if they chose to. They were in the shade taking a break and I watched one of them throw his empty gatorade bottle over his shoulder into the bushes. Instead of telling them what a-holes they are or waiting until I got to the trail head to report them to the rangers, I just reminded them that it's not cool to toss your bottle in the bushes, and that as close to the trailhead as they were, a ranger was bound to come by within a fairly short time, and could give them a hard time. One of the bottle thrower's buddies stuttered out a short "ya sorry man" and the bottle thrower rolled back and grabbed his trash. Had the guys ignored me I would have probably just continued on my ride and grabbed the bottle myself if it was still there on my way back. I agree that I don't want to be anyone's mommy and I don't enjoy cleaning up after others, although I often do. I would much rather a person pick up their own gatorade bottle because they choose to (after a bit of coaxing) than pick it up myself, or because they got a ticket.

As far as turning in drunk drivers, speeders, robbers, or muggers; I don't think that is a fair comparison to loud music listeners. Intentionally putting someone's life in danger is just a little different than listening to a Nirvana CD too loudly. Keep going with your outrageous exaggerations: what about chainsaw murderers, Al-Qaeda or laser shooting space aliens? Why would you handle them any differently than you would a rowdy group of hikers?

But just to indulge you, yes I would and/or have turned in robbers, muggers, speeders and drunk drivers. But unless the situation makes it impossible to to do anything but call the cops, I would personally react first. Example: I went to a college that happens to be in a really bad part of Los Angeles. On more than one occasion I witnessed a mugging, I was the victim of theft one time, saw someone get jumped in an alley, and found someone tagging the wall of my apartment building. In the case of the mugging, two guys jumped out of a car as they pulled up next to a male student that was walking alone. One threw him up against a wall while the other yelled at him to give up his wallet and his cell phone. I was no more than 40 feet away when this happened. Although DPS (campus police) are pretty quick to respond, they certainly would not have been able to respond to a phone call in time to stop this, so I ran at them yelling "what the f are you doing, get the f off of him" etc. They threw the kid to the ground and jumped in their car and sped off. Then I called DPS and told them what happened, what the guys looked like, that they were driving a greenish Isuzu Trooper, and that they were going east on 29th street toward Hoover. When I saw a guy getting beat up by 3 people in an alley, I put my high beams on, and leaned on my horn as I drove down the alley very fast. The guys took off and my friend and I jumped out, called the cops and stayed with the victim until cops and an ambulance showed up.

I don't think that it is wrong to report offenders to rangers or police, but in the case of someone with a loud stereo at TC, it should be a last resort, not your immediate reaction because talking to them could be "downright dangerous."

Some of you are right though, it is impossible to say that there is never any danger in confronting someone on the trail. In a Private Message, Clamber About brought up the graffiti in Cucamonga Canyon. If I were to come across the people that were doing that, and I was by myself, or a similar situation, I would probably keep on walking. But then again, I have not been in that situation yet.

I am sure that every person has a different reaction to these types of situations, and is willing to take their level of involvement to a different place.


That is absolutely true, but to refusing to ever say anything to anyone out of fear of retaliation is downright cowardly; and to never say anything because you don't feel it is your job is downright irresponsible.

Afrocelt Sound System is my favorite. The songs are either instrumental (interesting combo of drums and celtic instruments) or they are in a language I don't know. I'm not musically iniclined so without the help of an Ipod I can easily fall victim to the most inane jingle getting stuck in my head. Once when I was getting a root canal my dentist hummed "sweet caroline" by Neil Diamond the entire time. Somehow that damaged me and now whenever I'm in pain or really tired my tiny brain brings it back to haunt me. Maybe I should sue him.

Taking this in another direction...

I want to load a couple of gigs of Podcasts on my MP3 player in the next few weeks. I've got the ones from Outside Online (fun listening) and am looking for suggestions. What are your favorites?

oh no, someone invented pocket shots

Take the player or leave it? sorry, i was bored with the ice ax leash debate. here are some tunes: MP3 Frozen Feet evergreen (video) grizzly bear - knife (video)

Hah! Josh, way to resurrect an old thread here. You caught me! That was, believe it or not, only the second time I have ever hiked with the iPod, and the battery kept crapping out on me. It was nice to have some pump-up music during the scree-slog to the plateau, but I kept thinking about rockfall, too. It would've been hard to hear a call out with Linkin Park screaming into my ears... The only other time I used it was here in the San Gabriels, and I managed to freak myself out thinking I kept hearing rattles in all of the shrubbery near the trail...

Usually I only use it when I'm at the gym or walking to/from work.

I love how everyone says "its fine if you want to use an ipod" and then proceeds to call you a shmuck if you do. like your not a true outdoor enthusiast! I love to snowboard with my ipod & my husband gets really peeved when he cant get my attention. so now I either board alone or with my girlfriend who is Deaf. she laughs & tells me it dose not bother her at all!(i can sign & listen to my music simultaneously ) so if you see me on the trail with ipod on, try using American Sign Language to communicate. that way i can enjoy my music & you can have that oh so important conversation with me.

"...to refusing to ever say anything to anyone [in the Wilderness] out of fear of retaliation is downright cowardly."

Sorry, but I have to strongly dissent. I will give an appropriate example which will hopefully show my point.

While section hiking the Appalachian Trail in 2001, I ran across a group of unruly stereotypical "red neck" men in a Virginia shelter. On the AT, some of the shelters are close to the road and are populated on weekends by non-hikers. This incident was on the heels of a solo woman hiker being murdered on the AT and many people were discussing it on the trail.

While I was not hiking solo (my husband was with me), these guys were very intimidating. They made some very inappropriate remarks to me and we moved on. When we were setting up our tent, the same men approached and threw beer bottles/cans all over our site. Two of them had holsters on, where they presumably carried guns, though it was too dark for me to be sure.

Do you really think that by ignoring them and staying out of their way I was behaving in a "downright cowardly" way? It was more about self-preservation on a stretch of trail notorious for abusive locals who are no fan of section or thru hikers.

Candace,

That's down right scary! Kind of reminds me of the movie "Deliverance". I've been lucky. The scariest thing that has made me jump is the sound of a falling pine cone a short distance behind me.

Rafael...

thats heavy, I thought we were talking about ipods?