[pct-l] Music

[Diane Soini of Santa Barbara Hikes]

I guess I'm a musician of some sort. Not a good one, but I can play a  
lot of different instruments. I brought a pennywhistle on my hike. I  
tried to only play it where nobody would hear it, although sometimes  
I did get caught playing it. It was mostly helpful for getting the  
earworms out of my head and after a while I hardly ever played it  
unless some earworm was driving me nuts. I would have concentrated on  
the birds, but I was surprised how vast stretches of the forest can  
be devoid of birdsong. With everyone having headphones I'm not sure  
why anyone cares if someone isn't listening to non-existent birds and  
the crunch crunch crunch of their own feet pounding out the rhythm to  
Dan Fogelburg's Leader of the Band oh god here comes that earworm  
again...Why that song? Why why why?

On Mar 19, 2013, at 10:00 AM, pct-l-request at backcountry.net wrote:

> From: Eric Lee <saintgimp at hotmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Musicp
>
> Dennis wrote:
>>
> What's with all this music stuff.
> When I go hiking I want to get away form all that urban noise.
> Listen to your footfalls; listen the brooks babble; listen to the  
> birds
> sing; listen to the crickets and cicadas; listen to the waterfalls.
> Look at all the wonders.  You can almost hear with your eyes!
> That music will still be there when you get back, but the sounds  
> and scenes
> you passed through on the trail will not.
>>
>
> Well . . . for a hike of a couple of weeks, I would absolutely  
> agree with
> you (though everyone is free to hike their own hike).  If you're  
> doing a
> thru-hike and you're into northern California and Oregon with 3.5  
> months and
> 1,500 miles under your belt, I could definitely see how some people  
> would
> get awfully bored with footfalls and crickets.  And when you get to  
> that
> place sometimes you just need something to drown out the voices in  
> your
> head.  I don't look down on anyone who wants a little music to get  
> them
> through that.
>
> Eric