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Single best piece of advice ever given? What’s yours?


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Viewing 25 posts - 26 through 50 (of 71 total)
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  • #1558846
    Jay Wilkerson
    BPL Member

    @creachen

    Locale: East Bay

    Buy a Digital scale with Oz and Grams plus a hanging fishing scale so you can have a total of the whole pack…
    Less is more!!!!!!

    #1558867
    Eugene Smith
    BPL Member

    @eugeneius

    Locale: Nuevo Mexico

    Never inhale.

    #1558870
    Matt Lutz
    Member

    @citystuckhiker

    Locale: Midwest

    @Ben Wood: I use the same piece of advice in my ultrarunning. It's modified slightly, like getting to the finish is optional, but racing another day is mandatory. It prevents me from running myself to injury

    #1558878
    Eugene Smith
    BPL Member

    @eugeneius

    Locale: Nuevo Mexico

    Well put Matt! I'm in limbo right now as to whether I will even run on Jan. 17th for my first ultramarathon as I tend to this stupid IT band inflammation. However like you said, running another one is much more important than crossing the finish line which is optional so I'm treading lightly right now. By the way, what is the link to your blog? I remember checking it out sometime back.

    #1558880
    Matt Lutz
    Member

    @citystuckhiker

    Locale: Midwest
    #1558885
    Eugene Smith
    BPL Member

    @eugeneius

    Locale: Nuevo Mexico

    Thanks Matt.

    #1558886
    EndoftheTrail
    BPL Member

    @ben2world-2

    Bill:

    Same to you. My reply was tongue in cheek too — as evidenced by the smiley at the end. Too bad this forum doesn't allow for winking icons…

    #1558888
    Tony Wong
    BPL Member

    @valshar

    Locale: San Francisco Bay Area

    "Wealth is not a function of how much you make, it is a function of what you have after all the bills are paid."

    The one came from my wife as she was leaving for a business trip, "You have a few days off. While I am gone, go buy a ring."

    -Tony

    #1558897
    Steven Hanlon
    BPL Member

    @asciibaron

    Locale: Mid Atlantic

    my college adviser was a former lawyer turned literature professor. he was from L.A. and grew up in the city. our college is in a rural area so he decided to buy a farm house and have a small farm with chickens, goats, and a pig. he had no idea what he was doing.

    from that experience came this gem of wisdom:

    "stepping in s#!t isn't bad, it's how you deal with once it's on your shoe"

    #1558904
    James Naphas
    BPL Member

    @naphas13

    Locale: SoCal

    In life: Keep things in balance; very few people at the end of their lives say "I wished I had worked more and spent less time with my family."

    In backpacking: There's usually a good reason places pick up names like "Dry Creek" or "Rattlesnake Gulch," you might think twice about aiming to go to places with those kinds of names.

    #1558911
    Rod Lawlor
    BPL Member

    @rod_lawlor

    Locale: Australia

    Here it's been a bit modified to:

    It's not a good trip until you can talk about it over beers and burgers next week.

    ie, don't die on the drive home either.

    My hiking mates one is always

    "Standing up at someone's funeral saying that they died doing what they loved is a crock of sh*t. If I die in the bush, I want you to stand up and say what an idiot I was, and tell everyone what I did wrong. If you die in the bush, I'm not coming to your funeral!"

    #1558933
    Walter Carrington
    BPL Member

    @snowleopard

    Locale: Mass.

    James said, 'In backpacking: There's usually a good reason places pick up names like "Dry Creek" or "Rattlesnake Gulch," you might think twice about aiming to go to places with those kinds of names.'
    Agreed!! Always pay attention to the trail name. The classic, Bog Brook Trail (NH), was not a mud free delight.

    On the other hand, I live on Blood Hill about a mile from Mt. Hunger and still don't know reason for the bleak names.

    #1559028
    Paul Stupkin
    Member

    @samthedog

    Locale: Norway

    "Knowledge weighs nothing"

    Cash cannot replace common sense, so I prefer to hike with a head full of knowledge rather than a bag full of stuff.

    #1559032
    BlackHatGuy
    Spectator

    @sleeping

    Locale: The Cascades

    Not really advice, but I love the saying:

    Champion duathlete Maddie Tormoen once said, "I only have so many miles in me and I want to use every one of them before my time is up."

    #1559070
    Joe Kuster
    BPL Member

    @slacklinejoe

    Locale: Flatirons

    As hard as it is for us weekend warriors, try to spend more time on the trail than shopping for trail gear.

    #1559120
    Sean Walashek
    Member

    @caraz

    Locale: bay area

    Advice for me hasn't come in a small one liner often. When I focus on the most defining wisdom to sculpt my world view it has been authors such as Thoreau, Hesse, and Emerson, that have left the strongest impression of how life can be lived. To condense it as best I can, the one liner "Live simply, so that others may simply live." Is what I'm left offer to this thread.

    #1559145
    Kathleen B
    Member

    @rosierabbit

    Locale: Pacific Northwest

    My father used to tell my brother when they'd go on backpacking trips (no girls allowed – this was the late 50's and early 60's and dear ol' dad was from the old school), "you don't have to practice being miserable." Then he'd toss another flashlight or thick, heavy jacket into his Trapper Nelson.

    Luckily, I don't have to practice being miserable either, because I use the lightweight skills and equipment I've learned about on this site.

    #1559148
    Diane “Piper” Soini
    BPL Member

    @sbhikes

    Locale: Santa Barbara

    I've wondered why they named it "Man Eaten Lake". Did it actually eat a man?

    #1559153
    BlackHatGuy
    Spectator

    @sleeping

    Locale: The Cascades

    From some book or other:

    The lake, which the Karuk call ara u'ipamvaanatihirak, "the place where a person ate himself long ago," is the setting for a legend about a man who, in a fit of cannibalism, ate his entire family and finally devoured his own flesh. At the end, he became a roving skeleton, still seeking food.

    #1559264
    Scott Ireland
    BPL Member

    @winterwarlock

    Locale: Western NY

    Several years ago, the owner of another forum I am active on wrote his "7 Habits for Happy Hiking" – I have these posted in several places for constant reminders, so with all credit to "Neil", here they are:

    “7 Steps to Highly Rewarding Hiking”.

    1. Know your route.

    Whatever means of navigating you use (software, compass etc.) make sure you have studied and researched your route. Guide books, old trip reports, specific requests for beta from other hikers, tracklogs, whatever information may exist, you may as well profit from it. Then, whether it means writing bearings on a piece of tape on the back of a compass or entering a route into a gps (or both!) or printing a description make sure you do it.

    2. Watch your nutritional status.

    I never used to worry about this but getting older (49) has made me aware of the benefits.

    It starts (at least) the day before and for me means simply loading up on carbs and drinking lots of water. If you haven’t been active for a few days prior to the hike your muscles may already be full of glycogen (rocket fuel) and so the importance of eating is a little less.

    On the morning of the hike eat well, in the car on the way to the trailhead nibble and drink.
    While on the trail eat and drink often and plenty. I often find myself not wanting to eat even if hungry so I carry all kinds of different stuff and try to vary my food supply from hike to hike.

    3. Stay in shape

    If you're like me and can't hike as often as you'd like to then do something to stay in shape between hikes. There's nothing worse than suffering because your out of shape.

    4. Bite off a little more than you think you can chew (but not too much!).

    Some may disagree with me here but some of my best memories are from hikes that I wasn't sure about being able to successfully complete. (I had potential bailouts)

    5. Start real early
    For the big trips you can't beat a pre-dawn start. You never know when you'll need those hours. Personally, I prefer taking my headlamp off versus putting it on.

    6. Never underestimate a mountain.
    Approach every hike with the same respect.

    7. Choose your partners wisely.

    The only thing worse than standing around in the cold waiting is to be constantly pushing yourself out of your comfort zone to keep up with the others.

    #1559284
    EndoftheTrail
    BPL Member

    @ben2world-2

    I agree with everything except #5. Yuck. :)

    #1559288
    Miguel Arboleda
    BPL Member

    @butuki

    Locale: Kanto Plain, Japan

    Starting early may not be fun at first, but in the mountains the period around dawn tends to have the calmest and clearest weather. You can often avoid strong wind and rain this way.

    #1559291
    Scott Ireland
    BPL Member

    @winterwarlock

    Locale: Western NY

    and I do agree with Neil's comment that I'd rather start with a headlamp and take it off than end the day by putting it on, although in winters up here we often tend to use them at both ends of the day.

    #1559312
    EndoftheTrail
    BPL Member

    @ben2world-2

    Well, Miguel, if you say so. But can you please start the fire, I'll be up in a few… :)

    #1559347
    Nia Schmald
    BPL Member

    @nschmald

    The key phrases I learned from this site:

    "A pound of knowledge is lighter than a pound of gear."

    and the corollary:

    "We pack our fears."

Viewing 25 posts - 26 through 50 (of 71 total)
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