Are backpackers weird?

“Is it me, or do most non-packers think that we are weird? I mean so what if we want to give up a soft bed, running water, and electricity so we can get dirty, rained on, tired and sore. I think that bpers are more fun to hang out with and are able to accept other people for what they are. The non-bpers just don't understand what they are missing out on. Things like self-relieance, challenges, and awesome views of the world we live in. Any one else feel like they don't quiet fit with general perception of normality? Let me here it, reassure that I don't have cooties.”

“My sisters idea of roughing it is no roomservice. She can't understand how anybody could sleep in a tent.
Alot of my freinds also think that having to sleep in anything but a bed is strange.”

“Nope. Everybody I know wishes they could get out as often as I do.”

“When you are about four or more days out, life starts making sense again. If you haven't been there, you won't know what we are talking about. Therefore, we are perceived as wierd.”

“I'm constantly asked why I go camping for days on end...and for some odd reason people don't understand it when I say that "I like it!"

Frankly...I think everyone is wierd intheir own way! Some wierder than others.”

“Define normal? All my friends are bper's or at least spend alot of time in the outdoors so I would have to say that I am not weird I'm just being myself.”

“Wierd? By most standards I think we are considered a wierd breed. I get strange looks from co-workers and boss when I suggest a hike rather than a round of golf. Of course by now they know me well enough to just "shrug me off".
Still, we are typically a minority in most crowds, hence different, hence "wierd".”

“I should add...I don't consider us that way.”

“I think we are different. We do a physical activity that others would not do unless forced to. I think that more people may hike/camp if they truly new the great benefits, such as finding peace, solitude, and living with wildlife around us.

If others only knew that we spend hundred of dollars on gear & this affords us very comfortable camping with our plush sleeping bags. The only real thing we do without is running water. My sleeping bag is as comfortable as any bed. There really isn't any discomfort to camping these days.”

“Here in California I think you have to do something a lot more bizzare than backpacking to be called weird. Most people out here that I know have camped at least. Fewer have backpacked.”

“I live in the land of blue-collar red-necks. They seem to think that backpacking is a cool idea but that anyone that would actually get into it must be a tad unbalanced. Volunteer trail Maint. is just incomprehensible to them.

Luckily I've found a few co-horts here in the nuthouse.”

“Hunters .... sit on a big metal platform attached to a tree for six hours without making a sound.

Fishermen .... sit on a bucket for 6 hours in zero degree weather on top of a couple of inches of ice.

Mountain bikers .... go careening through the trees with outfits that look like something out of Tron.

Backpackers ... are normal. Perfectly normal.”

“I looked up weird in Merriam-Websters and some of the words included in the definition were "magical", "extraordinary", "mysterious". SO I would say YES--we are weird. The other thing that is weird is how "i before e except after c" does not apply here. I noticed that some people were just following the rules and spelled weird "wierd". Our language is strange and confusion. But backpackers are just weird.”

“On all the TT hikes that I've been on I have to admit that even though we all have one thing in common we are all extremly different from one another.At the Red River Gorge ECT get together when we sat around the campfire we all went around telling where we were from,what we did for a living and what made us who we were and it was uncanny how different we were from one another so I would have to say that in our own way we are weird to one another so we must be weird to those who don't backpack.”

“LOL Reformed!

I get the funny looks and questions when I tell my coworkers what I do on vacation. But I feel the same way about their trips to casinos. Why would anyone choose to sit in front of a machine for hours puting quarter after quarter in a slot and pushing a button with the hope that you may get a few quarters back. That's weird!”

“I'm wierd anyway. Backpacking isn't necessarally the reason.”

“LOL @ reformed lurker

Spam, that reminds me of one of the reasons I actually like the AT shelters. There may be a bricklayer, a retired Army sarge, a lawyer and a college student but in the shelter they are equal and the normal social structure is just irrelevant.”

“I agree Joy, I also feel the same way about Golf.Even though I do enjoy the game I can't understand anyone making a vacation out of it.”

“I agree with you too Crow.I failed to mention that even though some of guys and gals are weird to me as well I very much enjoy your company.”

“When I was getting stitches at the start of my last backpacking weekend, we decided to spend the first night in a motel due to the late hour and the electrical storm. The nurse said we should just stay in the motel and tell everyone we went backpacking. I said, "But I LIKE backpacking." and the room fell silent.”

“I have been working maintnance at my college this summer. For the last ew weeks my roomate (who also works maintnance) and me have managed to go somewhere on some kind of hike. Everyone percieves us as weird. yes to the average person we are weird. But I am glad, because that means I wont see them on the trail.”

“I embrace weirdness if it is defined as a being able to pack one bag that can be carried on my back in reasonable comfort and live out of the bag for weeks at a time in ANY climate,
ANY terrain at ANY time of year and be comfortable, entertained and happy without ANY of the support systems the MOST of the people that call us weird would die if deprived of.

I am proud to be one of the people that does not need "snivelization" to validate my existince.

Tahoe it's not you. Those who don't know do think we are insane. Those that do know are either happy for us or jealous of your latest trip and want to come too.”

“Weird is watching cars drive in a very fast oval for 500 miles. Weird is cheering while some other guy throws a ball through a hoop 10 ft off the ground. Weird is drinking so much that you cant walk , okay the last one is fun but bping aint weird.”

“Snivelization, I like that.

I always thought I would start a gear company after I retire and call it "Snivel Gear" and our company motto would be "Snivel gear - for when your ready to stop sniveling"”

“I'm wierd then. I like watching cars drive very fast in an oval for 500 miles.”

“Backpackers aren't that weird. Backpackers who hang out and socialize on and through a backpacking website: now they are mondo weird/”

“I think the reason why all of like this website is because we dont feel so wierd when we know other people are out there just like us.”

“Sorry duude, it's you and you got he cooties real bad *GGG*

Cheers!...hiccup...”

“heh.. we are not weird.. but we are definitely different.. most people i know.. ask me all sorts of questions.. cos they dont really see why I like it.. to them it is all about NOT having anything they think they need..”

“I have to agree, if weird equals serenity and peace and solitude on the trail, then let the weirdos wander. I'll see all you strange critters on the trail some day.”

“The opening line to the Kinks 'Misfits':

You've been sleeping in a field but you look real rested


Need I say more?”

“When I stopped in a national forest ranger station the other day after hiking, the woman at the counter remarked that I sure looked like I was ready for the woods. I was wearing my boonie hat, quick dry Rail Riders shirt & REI convertible cargo pants, and my Asolo boots, which I would think would be pretty unremarkable to NFS workers. But compared to the touristas who usually walk in wearing goofy T-shirts, plaid bermudas and velcro-laced tennies, just being prepared for the backcountry made me stand out, which is a form of weird.

reformed lurker, have you ever read Jim Harrison's essay, "Ice Fishing: the Moronic Sport"? It's set on Traverse Bay. Hilarious.

The British techno band Orbital has an album "Snivilisation" (brit spelling, of course) that I bought just because of the title. Cool music, too.”

“Pekka, it is wierd that a ranger would comment on being prepared as if it's unusual. Disturbing, too.

As far as a person being wierd, wierd is what? Opposite of normal? So tell me, who or what is completely normal?”

“An ideal vacation, for anyone, should provide reief from their regular, daily grind. Many people, that I know, say that if they just go and lie, on a beach somewhere, all they do is think about buisness, and they require the kind of distraction, that a place like Vegas provides, to feel truly rested. I can't argue with that.

For me personally, nothing offers a better contrast to my regular city life, than a week, or even a couple of days, in the backcountry.

Backbacking trips simplify my life, to the very basics. Where am I going to get shelter? What am I going to eat? It doesn't get much more basic than that! Add to that a pinch, of good company, a dash of healthy exercise, some fresh air and a generous portion of incredible scenery that is seen by few.

I couldn't possibly get my mind or my self any further away from work, than I do on the trail.”

“well said, BC.”

“Many folks can't understand why we would want to do without the comforts of "snivilisation".

I agree with Dunadan that it takes about four days to really start to feel the why.

Many of the people who I've talked with would like to be this adventurous but, just like exercise, can't seem to work up the willpower. Many are more comfortable with a very predicable routine. I have friends who vacation in the same places every year.

I created a color picture presentation of Glacier NP and sent it out to my mother and to some friends. Everyone, including my 80 year old mother, wished they were going with me. How can you not appreciate the views we get to see? The other rewards really kick in after about four days.

I have never been "normal". Who would want to be?”

“i am perfectly normal.

y'all are a bunch of freaks!”

“To me, 'weird' is spending seven hours a week in a concrete basement, on a stair climber or treadmill!”

“bc, that sounds more like "wired" than "weird," but point taken.”

“Yep, I'm weird. Nuf said.”

“Pekka I just happen to be Jim Harrison.”

“damn, spam!

did you write that???”

“I'm going on vacation for 30 days soon..... no toilet, no shower, dried food, no watch (well, maybe), carrying 35-40 lbs on my back and walking everyday.....AND I CAN'T WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!”

“I knew that Snow Nymph chick was weird!










She gets way too much vacation time! I'm just jealous.”

“Spam, but are you THE Jim Harrison? I think not.”

“I've met him. He is THE Jim Harrison. But mostly we just call him THE Spam.”

“I have been weird since the age of 12!
I have been backpacking for 69 years thru snow,ice,mud,rain,sleet, hot sun,cool nights-around the world west to east, north to south-hi altitude and low, desert and jungles, I am now 79 years along the trail and am still doing it!!!! my Kelty Pact is an antique but my stove is new, my sleeping bag is well broken in and my tent is one of the early Stephens..weird? yes I have been called that many times-AIN'T IT WONDERFUL?????????”

“Backpackers are normal, it's the rest of 'em that are weird.”

“Keep Rockin Chigger!!!
You da Man!!!”