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So is it just me or do I just seem to run into the latest trail phenomenon around the Phoenix area? Never ran into this when I've been hiking in other states. It's people that turn their smartphones into mini-boomboxes. Go ahead and listen to your crappy music all you want, but why subject everyone on the trail to this? Guess I am turning older and into a curmudgeon.

I LOVE music, but I just can't listen to it while hiking. Maybe I'm paranoid but I like to hear whats around me Bees, snakes, falling rocks and/or lions...oh my I do think if your going to listen to music you should keep it to yourself


At least on the trail

I listen to music on the trail but I have awesome situational awareness. I do take the ear buds out when I see animals or running water.

i could wear my earbuds but that wont help you. i'll still be jammin down the trail singin'

i wanna rocckkkk - dun dun nu nuh - dun dun nu nuh - i WANT TO rocckkk, ROCK - dun dun nu nuh - dun dun nu nuh

I'll never get the music while you hike phenomenon. Why not just use the treadmill at the gym?

Well......because treadmills are boring.

You can listen to music through headphones at a low volume and still hear things around you, though it's obviously not for everyone. Subtle sounds of music don't diminish a beautiful hike to a treadmill in a gym, at least not for me.

Maybe it's it's an urban thing, but while I agree treadmills are boring, I don't see the world around me as boring, so music is not necessary. Then again, I leave my cell phone at home most of the time, don't like texting, and don't have cable, so I am not really in the now for gadgets.

I find music (through earphones only) to be motivating when doing routine workout stuff like hiking up Camelback, plus it helps to block noise pollution coming from tourist types, and it's an excuse to ignore people as if I didn't hear them if I so choose. On real hikes I would never consider listening to music, nature is awesome enough.

This is a little off subject but I would like to thank te-wa for this

te-wa wrote:i wanna rocckkkk - dun dun nu nuh - dun dun nu nuh - i WANT TO rocckkk, ROCK - dun dun nu nuh - dun dun nu nuh

I haven't stop singing this since I read it :whistle:

I've pulled out my Ipod a couple of times when doing long days in the mountains just to help motivate me up the hill. Nothing like some Motorhead or Crystal Method to erase the pain of endless switchbacks. But 95% of the time I am music free when I am out hiking and I wear headphones for the 5% of the time I am listening to music. Not subjecting everyone else on the trail to crappy techno pop.

My opinion is that people listening to music out loud for all to hear are either ignorant or jerks. Ignorant because they don't realize that it is irritating everyone or jerks because they do.

SpiderLegs wrote:Nothing like some Motorhead

Ace of Spades!

Devils Mountain wrote:Ace of Spades!

OH YAH!

Problem is when people turn up their headphones so loud their choice of "music" is still shared with the rest of the world. Oh well, one day they will be deaf. Revenge delayed, but nonetheless sweet ...

Bradshaws wrote:...I like to hear whats around me Bees, snakes, falling rocks and/or lions...

This. No substitute for full environmental awareness ...

Well, that and when they don't hear you ask to pass several times and you have to shove them aside.

@Jim_H
Two words...cattle prod.

Alston Neal wrote:@Jim_H
Two words...cattle prod.

Why do you think trekking poles have such a nice steel tip?

One of my faves is the oncoming hiker with ear buds. I can't hear his music but he's making "air faces" and singing Bon Jovi, acappella to the rest of the world.


Sgt Lumpy - n0eq

When I do some of the hikes or my walks thru town I only put in one ear bud. Even at work we can listen to the radio (no iPod or MP3 players allowed) but can only have one ear bud in. And is low enough to hear all around too...

somewhat non sequitur alert. One afternoon, hiking in the near the 32nd st. trailhead of the Phx Mt. Preserve, I heard a voice bellowing down the canyon, LOUD, in occasional falsetto. I could not place it until the man rounded the corner, wearing a fanny pack and SHORT shorts, singing (with gusto) the chorus to Rush's "Distant Early Warning". I didn't mind the musical intrusion into nature that afternoon.