Hiking

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Don’t Just Look But Really See

Back packers and hikers have the good fortune of traveling through some of the most amazing and beautiful scenery in the world. With a new wonder around every bend in the hiking trail, over every mountain ledge and behind every tree, it seems a bit of a shame for some of these backpackers to stroll merrily on their way without really seeing the beauty of the area. Now, I’m not for one minute suggesting that we should all be like my Aunt Flo, a hiker of dubious reputation . . . she loves to go hiking (well, she’s getting on a bit now) but even when she was up to full hiking strength she was one of those hikers who would only be invited to join your hiking party on very rare occasions. She had all of the hiking gear, the latest backpack (lightweight for a lady of course), well “worn in” hiking boots, walking poles and she could cook up a mean coffee over a camp-fire, but she also carried binoculars, monocular, magnifying glasses and anything else she could lay her hands on . . . and insisted on detailed analysis of every alpine flower, bug, rock formation and tree branch along the hiking route. She was very good at spotting rare birds in the canopy above and knew almost every bird by their song (and even droppings on some occasions . . . don’t ask), but after what should have been an hours solid hiking you could find yourself no more than half a mile from the trail head . . . and her wanting to stop for a bite to eat!

Setting goals before a hike . . . let’s see . . . get home with the minimum number of blisters possible, still be talking to the other half by the end of the hiking trail and not to eat all of the Luna bars in the first half hours hiking. . . that about covers it!

Hiking Optics

What has Aunt Flo got to do with hiking optics I hear you ask (I have very good hearing . . . who said that?) well, I’ll tell you . . . she was hiking optic mad (as well as mad in many other ways) and she did have some very good ideas, she saw and recorded some absolutely fascinating stuff of which the rest of the hiking party were blissfully unaware, but you didn’t really get very far on your hike. By all means buy yourself some type of hiking optic device (there are some really small lightweight ones which slip into your pocket so that they’re always handy if you hear something rustling or whistling in the trees), and another bonus with monocular hiking optics . . . you can always jump onto a rock, get your hiking optic out of your hiking pocket, look out onto the horizon across the hiking trails and say “I see no ships” in a pirate voice, that should really get the conversation started!

Jeez, thank goodness Aunt Flo didn’t have any night vision hiking optics . . . we’d have never got her home from the hike!