5 Annoying Hiking Behaviors — And How to Fix Them
Over the past couple decades, getting out to nature to hike has exploded in popularity. Once the eldest of the millennials graduated from college, they looked for cheap options with which to entertain themselves. There’s no cheaper option than walking. But why simply walk in the big city with its dirty smells and loud noises? The sounds and smells of the forest are far superior than those down Broadway. The forest can help cleanse your lungs and your system and fill you with energy. This trend only accelerated with the pandemic having closed restaurants, bars, and other entertainment options.
But with any rapid acceleration, there are some issues that may arise that detract from the overall experience. Many people who did not grow up hiking may not know certain rules of the road. It may benefit everyone greatly to go over some of the easier ground rules when it comes to hiking that people may overlook or not know.
Not Just Trash
It should come as no surprise that trash is a huge problem all over the world. It’s generally good habit not to throw trash on the ground anywhere. In cities like New York this is a major problem. But somehow, certain cities like Tokyo and Singapore, have figured out how to shame people into not throwing their trash anywhere. It’s just common sense not to throw your trash out in the forest or wherever you’re hiking. If you see someone throw their garbage on the trail, let them know they dropped something. Shame is an excellent tool in fixing the trash problem out in the woods or mountains.
It is also worth noting that not all trash is candy wrappers and tissues. I have come across all sorts of things that are generally not considered trash. Most of these are things people simply forgot. I got a sweet pair of Oakley sunglasses left on a bush on the Grays and Torreys peak trail back in 2014 (I’m happy to return them if the person who lost them is lucky enough to be reading this). Paying attention to your belongings and surroundings helps to reduce the amount of human objects left out in nature. This leads to the cardinal rule of nature.
Leave No Trace
This is the cardinal rule of all things outdoors. The outdoors and nature is no one’s home and everyone’s home simultaneously. Most conservationists view the outdoors and nature as everyone’s home. Treating the outdoors as one’s own home should be the standard, however not everyone’s home is clean and tidy. It is not a good assumption to think that people don’t trash their own homes. After all, have you ever seen a clean and tidy teenager’s bedroom?
The alternative is to view nature as someone else’s home. The way I usually view nature is that it is not my home, but rather the animals’ home. Similar to when I go to a friend’s house, I am respectful of their property and do not trash it. I also don’t leave anything behind that I may want later, like my GoPro. Let’s face facts, a bear has no interest in watching GoPro videos when they’re trying to hibernate. I don’t blame them, I can’t fall asleep with the TV on either!
When you enter nature, make sure you take a look around at your surroundings. Pay attention to how things are arranged. Make sure to leave everything as you found it. Think of it as someone else’s home.
Additionally, would you scribble and write things on your friend’s walls? Squirrels can’t read human language and I’m sure they don’t appreciate having their trees marked up. If you see someone carving their name into a tree or writing their name on a rock, tell them not to do that. Remember the shame rule, they’ll most likely stop because they feel embarrassed.
Right of Way
You may have noticed walking around in cities that there is a certain etiquette to walking. The side of the path on which one walks may vary between a place like New York (to the right) and London (to the left). In the mountains, there is also a similar etiquette. Generally speaking, the hiker going uphill has the right of way. This is taken from high altitude hiking. The quicker you get to the peak, the quicker you can get off and back to more oxygen. If you’re going uphill, you have the right of way.
There’s a notable exception to this rule however. For slow hikers like me, it is important to take frequent breaks at altitude. On the way up a 14er, I may take a few breaks to catch my breath as I hike higher and have less oxygen in my lungs. The key thing to keep in mind if you’d like to take a break, make sure to step aside so that others may pass you.
Sticking to the Path
In Barcelona, there is the famous Park Güell. This park is astounding as its many paths wind around a small area in the middle of the city. The park’s designer, Antoni Gaudi, put tremendous amounts of thought into how to design the park’s many paths in order to maximize the available mileage within a small area of land in a large city.
Most of the nature hikes a typical reader will encounter near their homes or even far away, have the same sort of thought and care put into them as Gaudi did when he designed his park. Park and forest rangers build hiking trails put in a lot of thought and reason when it comes to building hiking trails. The shape and location of hiking trails takes into account geological formations (e.g. the gradient of hills and mountains), animal migration patterns, and environmental aesthetic. For example, the dreaded Walter’s Wiggles of Zion National Park’s Angel’s Landing trail are a series of switchbacks, back and forth sections on the trail which wind up steep sections of a mountain’s side. Switchbacks serve two purposes. The first is that they make very steep sections more easily accessible to hikers. The second purpose is to reduce erosion on the mountain’s side. If you cut across the switchbacks, the mountain erodes and fewer people can use it in the long run.
Animals tend to stay away from heavily trafficked hiking trails as they generally like to be left alone. Of course, there are the occasional squirrels and deer that like to feed on food droppings when they smell humans. Staying on trails helps to protect the animals who generally like to be left alone in their native home.
Staying on the trail protects you, the animals, and the surroundings from long term damage. Please stay on the trail and don’t try to design your own trail. Leave that for the professionals.
Be like the Church Mouse
Whenever I go hiking, it’s really so that I can get away from the sights and sounds of big city living. Nature is where I can decompress from the hustle and bustle of the city where I hear sirens, cars, music, and other noises. Loud hikers take away from the experience. Whether that is loud conversations or playing music, artificial noise detracts from the experience one can take in within the forest.
A more immediate danger a loud hiker can come across is not paying attention to nature’s warning sounds. Listening to music on a speaker can startle animals like bears, coyotes, foxes, wolves, and snakes putting them in a heightened state of alert which can cause them to attack humans. Moreover, listening to music on headphones can also pose significant danger. Snakes for example, are very shy animals. They often slither away when approached. But there is the situation where escape doesn’t seem viable to the animal. You will often hear the hiss and rattle of a snake who doesn’t want to be approached. This is a warning you may miss if you are listening to music or conversing loudly. Your own noise can be your undoing in nature. So be like the church mouse. Glide through the trail quietly and listen to and enjoy the sounds of nature.
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