HikeArizona.COM

Today is a beautiful day. 70-something degrees. Sunny. Breezy. A great day for a hike! But that's not what I did today.

I suspect many HAZers find a great mental escape from a few miles on the trail. But what other activities do you get "therapy" from?

For me ... I know 95% of you will call me crazy (and the other 5% will invite me over your place) ... weeding.

Yup. I just spent about 6 hours kneeling, sitting, crouching, plucking, picking, clearing, digging. My yard looks fantastic (especially next to the forests growing in my neighbors yards). And I feel great.

Anybody else got unusual things you just enjoy doing?

(P.S. To maintain some level of normalcy, I should say that I wouldn't want to weed every weekend. But those handful of times each year that I do it is a real treat!)

I had friends in college that liked weeding. But that was a different kind of weed. :A1:

I enjoy researching new places to backpack. Gosh, I dont know how many hours i've spent trying to dig up info on one place (ie Needles Eye Wilderness and Grand Wash/Music Mountains). I do find it rewarding when I finally go there and see all my effort work out!

chumley wrote:For me ... I know 95% of you will call me crazy (and the other 5% will invite me over your place) ... weeding.

Quick, someone hijack him and take him hiking! This is just unbelievable! ut: :sorrry:

Shooting; for an hour or so you have plugs in your ears and tunnel vision on the task-at-hand. The rest of the world melts away. That, and there's a great feeling of catharsis after sending hundreds of rounds of aggression down range...

when not hiking, I go walking... or running. Or, I sit and think... about hiking, or walking... or running.

In response to imike:
Now, that is believable!

Grasshopper wrote:In response to imike:
Now, that is believable!

Simple is always good...

Jeff MacE wrote:Shooting...

I like shooting too ... but its just sort of fun sometimes, it doesn't necessarily make me feel good. Except maybe if I'm just in a bad mood and I utterly destroy some pumpkin. Then its different.

I like gardening and yardwork quite a bit. I have half an acre, and I take pride in making it look nice in the summer. In winter, like right now (we still have snow on the ground here, and more fell last night) I don't have to do any gardening! I plant a vegetable garden in summer, and I have old-fashioned ditch irrigation, the kind where the water comes to your house via a ditch along the side of the road. I get one hour a week in May and June. I run it to my apple trees and pear tree, and all over the yard, and in my veggie patch. I trim hedges and mow a lot of grass, and grow flowers, too--Shasta daisies and hollyhocks and marigolds and sunflowers, mostly. In addition to the apples and pears, I have a big weeping willow tree, a maple tree, a real paper birch tree, a crabapple tree, and a catalpa tree and a whole bunch of elms. (Elms are like weeds around here.) What's a catalpa tree? It is weird, look it up on the internet. It has beautiful flowers in early summer, and makes these gargantuan long beans that hang down (not edible) and it has huge leaves. Very pretty. We have gorgeous summers here, and gardening is a very satisfying activity. http://www.hikearizona.com/photoset.php ... 51&start=0

I also like reading, road trips, talking on the phone to old friends, and bookstores (the one in Springerville has closed, alas).

I do love, as basejumper said, to plan trips. I have a map dresser, it's one of those plastic stacking drawer deals you can buy at Wally World, plus I have all Arizona topos on CD. I plan to go to the next level soon--DVD and software for my GPS, but I am slow to learn new technology. I love to lay a bunch of paper maps out on a big table or on the floor and plan a trip that way.

I do love weeding, too. I don't have the patience to do it for hours on end, but 15-20 minutes here in there is quite cleansing. I've got a smallish urban lot that is bordered on both sides by weed patches, so it's an endless chore. But, it's outside, I get to play with my desired plants and it recalls in my soul some of that feeling of tending land.

Sigh.

Of course, if given the choice between a day of backpacking/hiking and a day of pulling weeds, well, I rarely choose the latter... ;)

writelots wrote: I've got a smallish urban lot that is bordered on both sides by weed patches, so it's an endless chore.

Same here; I think the one guy is intentionally trying to breed mosquitoes!!

Jeff MacE wrote: I think the one guy is intentionally trying to breed mosquitoes!!

the popcorn guy?

fricknaley wrote:

Jeff MacE wrote: I think the one guy is intentionally trying to breed mosquitoes!!

the popcorn guy?

That's him!! I think he has a chamberpot, now!! I saw him the other morning dumping some oddly-colored liquid into this mud-hole he is constructing in his front yard...

that cannot be good

I like driving (maybe a little faster than I should) with the windows down and music blaring (or without any music, the wind and sounds of nature being music enough). I usually find some of my best hikes and have taken some of the best photos this way. Often times, these drives are spontaneous and I am a little unprepared for hiking.

I didn't know about the Thunderbird Trail System in north Phoenix, and found it during one of my exploratory drives around sunset. When I have plenty of time to diddle daddle I will just go for a drive and see if I can get any good photos. Photography is another therapeutic thing for me, which happens to fit very nicely with my addiction for hiking ;)

I love to cook, but when I need something therapeutic, I BAKE (only from scratch, never ever from the box), and then I share my goodies with friends, neighbors, and relatives. It is hugely therapeutic to see the reaction people have to the treats I make.

So far though, there is nothing quite like the feeling of solitude and peace that I get when I hike.

I get this blissed-out feeling sometimes when I'm driving on the way to a hike, etc. It can't be manufactured, it just happens.

I get the same feeling while hiking or biking sometimes, too. I'm enjoying the hike or bike ride almost any time I'm out there, but just sometimes that blissful feeling is stronger.

I was pulling the field of mustard weed that erupted in my rocks out front his weekend and began to notice the weed-pulling bliss. It is kind of detaching and relaxing...

Jeff MacE wrote:I was pulling the field of mustard weed that erupted in my rocks out front his weekend and began to notice the weed-pulling bliss. It is kind of detaching and relaxing...

Is that why we are obsessed with weeds in our yards? Because of the bliss of pulling them?

In Tucson you can (Technically) get a fine for allowing rampant weed growth of heights "Taller than a dollar bill" to proliferate about your property; though that threat seems to have next to no effect...Maybe just pulling them really is the pleasure?