From your expirence, should I or should not I take a discman with me ?
I live music, I hear it 24/7, I dream through it, I go into other worlds with it.
But it will cost me another 500 gram ( 1LB ) plus butteries.
So the question is, will I even use it ?
I assume I wont use it in the start, when the adrenaline is high and all of that.
But after a month or so when the trail becomes the routine for you, I am sure I will miss music.
What do you think ?
_Roee Dotan_ Its really up to the individual. I had a mini disc player that weighed about 5 or 6 oz. Carried it the whole way. I had rarely any desire to listen to it early on. I started listening more regualarly about a month or so in. I would get totally excited when i got a new disc in a maildrop, but would eventually get really tired of the same tunes.
Eventually I relied on music. The last month or two I desperately needed music, especially when I was hiking alone more. It is really nice to listen to natures music and I’m a big proponent of that, but sometimes I just needed tunes. Maybe it was all the rain we had last year, I don’t know, but it certainly made tough days a lot more enjoyable. I will warn you though, music makes you miss animals often and can be a hazard especially around rattlesnakes. I would never keep music too loud. Maybe start without it and maildrop it up the trail a bit. If you realize you dont need it, just send it home.
_A-Train_ Please leave your music box in the city. Listen to the music of the birds, the wind, the rushing streams.
_UGH_ It is of course up to the individual...but I found the extra wieght and tapes, or CD's to be a burden. It is fun to have, but (and this includes the tough rocky crap that I hate) I found that if I had zero distractions, my mind worked better.
I could hear not only the beauty of the world around me, but the answers to questions that have plauged me for longer then I even knew.
The music can help in the times of ‘blues’, but again, your mind can create music, it can allow you to hear the rhytm of nature, it can sharpen your senses, and allow you to be so much more aware of what is in your area then if you had no music at all.
The sounds of the world create a song, and they also become as addictive as your favorite CD. I found listening to music grand for a while, then after I took the things off, I actually enjoyed the mental challenges of being alone, and thinking through all the things that come back to you on every single level while you are out hiking for long distances.
Try it with it, and without it…you may be surprised at how much more you enjoy your own thoughts then you do something you have heard a millin times.
_Lion King_ I'm planning on bring a minidisc. Mine weighs about 5 oz and I like the extra mmmph it gives me when I'm hiking up a tough hill at the end of a long day. I dont use it every day but sometimes its nice to break up the routine and the "ear worms" that would otherwise be occupying my mind.8)
Im also hoping to get a few minidiscs inn the mail or exchange w/other hikers.:cheers
_greaver_