Monday, November 23, 2020

Was that a hike?

A reinactment

Where’s the line between a walk and a hike? They both consist of covering ground by repeatedly putting one foot in front of the other without falling down. 

Is it a matter of where you walk? We don’t say we hike around the block. 

Is it the distance? Would circling the block all day turn it into a hike?

Is it about difficulty? Is a trail up a mountain hike-ier than a trail across flat land? Even if the latter is longer?

Is it about the pace? There’s no ambling, no moseying, no lallygagging in hiking, right? 

Is it the degree of remoteness? Do we need to be out in the boonies before that one-foot-in-front-of-the-other thing can be called a hike?

Is it about the gear you take—or don’t take—with you? If you don’t have special shoes, a pack, water, food, a first aid kit, maps, GPS, and trekking poles, are you simply on a walk or just insufficiently unprepared for a hike?

Maybe it boils down to intent. When I stepped out of the Rolling Steel Tent this afternoon I was just going to wander in the desert a bit. Get some easy exercise. Just, you know, go for a walk. I had covered about three miles by the time I got back. There were some hike-ish aspects to the walk—going in and out of washes, sidestepping minor obstacles, pushing through some vegetation—but mostly I just walked across the gravely alluvial plain. At an energetic, but not cardio-stressing, pace. Since I’ve been living in this particular patch of desert for about a week, I guess you could say I went for a walk around the neighborhood. Or a hike. 

6 comments:

  1. Intent is my differentiation. Walks for me are nice meanders at a comfortable pace with no distance planned. A hike for me is usually toward a certain physical goal and normally means I carry water/food with me. Yes a walk can be shorter or longer than a hike. But the most important thing is I do not worry about classifying which outing is which, just try to have tooooo much fun.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We used to go on a penny hike. In the city. At each corner we'd toss a penny and how it landed determined whether we turned right or left. Depending on how the penny landed, sometimes it was, technically, a hike around the block.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. If you use two pennies, then you can have 2 heads = right, 2 tails = left, one of each = straight.

      Delete
  3. Colon Fletchers 'The Complete Walker' has long been considered the "hikers" Bible.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I see there's a 1971 edition for sale for $859.15. That's probably a little spendy for those who just go on walks. :D

      Delete
  4. on a hike, "you can pee whenever you want, while on a walk, you use the facilities"

    ReplyDelete