HikeArizona.COM

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.

Situational awareness or environmental awareness is exactly way I don't wear ear buds. Hearing is a very important part of any kind of awareness. That's why a emergency vehicles have sirens, you usually hear them before you see them. And that's why rattlesnakes have rattles ;) I even stopped wearing sun glasses on hikes because I kicked a rattlesnake once while hiking I never saw it. The tint on my lenses made it disappear into the path. Scared the out of me.

I also like to have total awareness of the sounds around me when out in nature, but I will admit, there has been just a time or two where I would have liked having a little music to take the "grind" and pain out of a long uphill....But it's completely rude and uncalled for to not wear ear buds....

@Outdoor Lover
Sunday while we were up on Perry Mesa I had just gotten to the bottom of Baby Soon to be a Canyon.
I stopped a sec cuz of a hum......far off plane, a couple of bees by a plant?
Holly snickers a swarm was coming...freeze! Just like I read on HAZ.
I calmly told the Mrs. the same thing and we watched them pass right over our head.

@Alston Neal
Typically, if they're "swarming" they are looking for a new home and are not as "territorial" and defensive, if that eases your fear any. We ran into a "Swarm" in Hess Canyon, but just stood still and they just ended up passing us by.... They won't usually "attack" unless they are actually "defending" something and as long as you don't do something to "agitate" them, they'll leave you alone when they're "househunting"...

@Outdoor Lover
Last year we saw a swarm in the Anchas and it freaked us out. More so than the very POed rattler we saw 10 minutes later.
But like you said and what I read here is that when they're moving it's cool, oh and I'm wearing light colored clothing now also.
I've learned so much from this site, it's amazing that I've even lived this long.

I think the majority, including myself, don’t like to hear other hikers playing their music on speakers, but what about audiobooks?

I crossed paths on the trail today with a woman who was listening to an audiobook, and it did not bother me at all. Had it been music, I know I would have been annoyed right away. She had the volume low, and it was pretty much indistinguishable from passing a couple of hikers having a conversation. I found it interesting how using a speaker for one thing vs another elicited completely different levels of reaction/annoyance.

@LindaAnn
I am an avid audio book "reader"; I always use an earbud. I distinguish the use of a single bud, so I can hear hiking traffic traffic, etc. The non-headphone/bud users are annoying.

While we are at it, some people should not wear yoga tights in public.

The only time I will utilize the speaker of my phone on a hike is when I am deep into wilderness where I am reasonably sure there will be no one else around. Even then it's at a volume lower than that of a conversation and always a podcast. Music seems to carry further. There are some differences in prevailing frequencies between spoken words and music and I think that's where you see the difference. And I only very rarely do this when I''m on like the last few miles of a solo hike longer than 14 miles to get me through that hump.

I am definitely perplexed by this phenomenon that people must always always always have their tunes blaring to the public as a requirement or they cannot go on living another moment.

Pivo wrote:While we are at it, some people should not wear yoga tights in public.

I agree, but my Speedos are still cool, right?

I don't care much for sounds coming from people, although I sometimes tolerate or even enjoy conversation.

I encounter a lot of road cyclists and mountain bikers who play music for the rest of us to hate. I live in the San Francisco Bay Area so we've got a whole different type of entitlement here.

Today after a peaceful 4 mile loop I was subjected to Kelly Clarksons “Since you’ve been gone” on full blast about 0.3 miles from the trailhead.

I’ve had the song stuck in my head since then *insert vomit emoji*. I don’t understand at all the need for boom boxes on the trail and I like listening to music when I trail run (only use 1 ear bud).

@xthine
Hey now at least you knew the words to the song. You could have even sang a long!

@RowdyandMe


I actually did..all the way to the parking lot sadly.

@xthine
LOL!

I haven't heard hikers who blast music, only mountain bikers and they move fast enough that I don't have to hear their "music" for long. I have a much bigger issue with loud voices from both hikers (usually females) and mountain bikers (particularly males). The worst: a young man riding downhill behind me screaming "Woohoo" and girls who were screaming so far away that I don't know whether they were on foot or wheels.

@Whiffer

Couple of years ago on the Highline, had a couple of "mountain bikers" headed my way blasting music turned up to 11 *and* with gasoline engines strapped to their bikes.

They spooked a bear as they approached, and it crossed the trail between us -- about fifty feet from me and fifty yards from them. Pretty sure the bear would have never left cover if not for what sounded like a whole entire rave and a pack of gasoline chain saws coming down the trail.

This little frame certainly resonates with me, despite the lack of punctuation!

@azbackpackr
"alone with your thoughts" Well that's a leap and of course it's their right and bringing it up makes you a Karen or Kevin.