Hiking without a net

[BlueTrain]

There's another thread about this topic but since it's really more about what I want to do, rather than what I've done, I thought I'd start another thread.

I'm using the expression "hiking without a net" to mean not taking any clothing or cover-up along on a hike, especially a longish hike. That has been on my to-do list for years and I've yet to accomplish it. It's just about the only thing left on my list, too. So, that's sort of the focus of this year's planning.

I do know two or three places where that might be possible without any unreasonable risk. I don't want to do it because of the risk factor--or do I? I don't really know but it will be good to get it out of my system, if actually doing it once does that. It's also part of a minimalist hiking trip, too. I've been on enough outings to realize how few things one really needs on a long hike. Sometimes one can manage without clothes.

I don't know why I want to do such a thing. There's no denying that it's daring and risky. But it's also exhilarating, to say the least. Mostly, I suppose, it's just an abstract goal that having a pair of shorts in the pack would spoil. Having a run-in with an unfriendly person would spoil it too, of course, which is why I would only consider a few places in which to attempt such a tramp. Only one is reasonably close, meaning less than a hundred miles. In fact, the only places to have a long hike in the woods and not be in a suburban neighborhood are more than 75 miles away. That more than anything, had kept down the number of outings I've been doing. The other reason is long hours at work. But that will soon end (and not soon enough)!

Now the question becomes, how soon can I go? We've had some mild weather this winter, which is good, but who knows what it will be like a month from now, when I'm actually free? And how cool can I tolerate outdoor nudity. I can just manage with 60 degrees (F) in the basement at home but barely and there's no wind in the basement. Well, one should probably go as soon as the opportunity is there and make the most of it.

My wife has a to-do list for me, too.

[jbeegoode]

SSSHHHHIIIITTYTYTTT!TT!!!!!!!! I just wrote you a beautiful two page response, pushed the wrong button and deleted the whole daaaammmmma thing!!!!!!!!!!! Maybe later.

Basically:

I do it for those reasons, but also, a sense of liberation, an awareness and exploration of what I have been given in this body in this world. To make myself learn just how fantastic this gift is by pushing limits. 

If the conditions are safe I do it. If not, I make minimal safe compromises. I always do each trip with the goal of being as freely naked as possible.

Leave from a nude resort, or not an official trail-head.

DF and I switch who carries the load, and so one stays total naked.

Backpack in, naked the next day on day hikes, back out the next day.

Stash coverings after trailhead, but for animals, etc.

If cover is stuffed in my bag, I can't get to it quickly enough. If I have the commitment/intent to stay nude no matter what, it works for me. If I'm dressing only for the elements, that is much different from having clothing to hide my body from others. I've been hurrying back, naked, cold and hungry because conditions changed. It stops being so liberating, just a hassle. 

 https://thefreerangenaturist.org/2017/11/01/rethinking-strategies-when-encountering-others/

Barefoot can be dangerous and damaging. I always take something, for if my feet might wear out. I haven't been barefoot for my whole lifetime. Feet can get burned like fire roasted in no time, prickers can be awful (I've been crippled for weeks and weeks by these). 
Jbee

[BlueTrain]

Accidentally deleting a superbly long and well-written message has happened to me, too. In fact, I sure that my best writing has been in messages that were never posted.

I've never hiked barefoot and I even wear something on my feet all the time at home, even when otherwise nude, partly because it's warmer that way and partly because I keep stubbing my toes. I once thought about wearing sandals when out hiking as a reaction to a very wet outing. I did in fact wear sandals a few times and they worked fine but they didn't seem to offer any particular advantage over wearing some other kind of footwear. I've been thinking of getting a pair of cheapo hiking shoes from Wal-Mart that seemed to fit well and were lightweight. I don't know about shoes cut that low, though. Otherwise, I don't give much thought to footwear, except that one of my feet needs something soft underneath.

If you carry your cover-up inside your pack, as I have done, you're pretty much hiking without a net, I suppose. But with some exceptions, the likelihood of passing someone else on the trail is totally unpredictable. I've been out hiking in Shenandoah National Forest on the 4th of July and never met anyone on the trail. Other times, I've passed a dozen people. Once, also in Shenandoah National Forest, I was at the trail head near the Elkwallow wayside (I think it was) getting ready for a day hike. While I was there, first one car pulled in, then another and then a couple more and within five minutes, about 20 young people got out and started down the trail. I followed a few minutes later and never saw them again.

The exception, of course, are what you look for. In that neck of the woods, the only trails where I'm practically certain I wouldn't run into anyone else are not the best trails for hiking. Such is life.

[nudeed]

Bluetrain, when I would hike in Vermont I was always without a net, as far as clothing. Of course it is completely legal to be nude in public in most areas. The only things that I would carry in my pack would be food, water, sunscreen, towel, blanket,
( for relaxing by the water) wallet, keys, and my cell phone. In the hundreds of encounters over the years I have only had one negative reaction. That was from a middle aged woman we meet during a Summer solstice hike with a mixed group. I am now in Florida and am able to hike along a section of the Canaveral National seashore net free. Also exploring other areas.

[BlueTrain]

On that wet outing I mentioned, I did the entire tramp wearing a poncho, because of the weather. I even passed a few other people along the way who may or may not have noticed that the poncho was all I was wearing. I even walked along the highway back to my car wearing the poncho.

I keep trying to take less and less stuff with me, which is surprisingly difficult to do. One is always tempted to throw in one more thing. I do take something to sit on, however (a "situpon"), which is just a square of closed foam, which also helps stiffen the pack. That's better than bare skin on bare rock, which are pretty hard and rough where I go. I still take first aid stuff but in fifty years, I've only used about one Band-Aid and that's it. My biggest worry, first aid-wise is falling, which has happened to me in the woods. But I've only been seriously injured at home, enough to need a doctor, curiously. Water, of course, and I'm never sure if I drink enough. When on an ordinary walk while nude, I seem to perspire less than if I'm mowing the lawn at home, but that may not be true. Of course my wallet and keys are there but I have no cell phone.

Mostly I think of being able to hike nude, with or without a "net", to be something of an accomplishment, as well as something that is very enjoyable.

[Greenbare Woods]

If you carry your cover-up inside your pack, as I have done, you're pretty much hiking without a net, I suppose. But with some exceptions, the likelihood of passing someone else on the trail is totally unpredictable.

True that.  There is always a chance that some other unknown person or persons will choose the same day to hike the same trail.  Sometime in 1990 I decided that being seen naked in the woods was acceptable to me.  I began leaving my clothes in my car if the car park was not peopled or hiding the clothes behind a log if the car park was busy.   I've been seen by hundreds of other hikers and never had problems. 

I agree with BlueTrain that carrying your pants in your pack is almost the same as being committed to being naked because it takes a while to get out your pants and the person coming down the trail toward you is not going to wait that long.  Its just one more thing to carry though, and not natural in the woods. 

Bob
 

[BlueTrain]

I try not to use the word natural too often. French fries aren't natural.

I have been seen nude (as well as naked) a few times with no trouble, although I wasn't always actually hiking at the time. Just the same, I've usually covered up with the shorts I carried for just that purpose. While I might not be troubled by being seen, I might be troubled by someone else seeing me. I have actually encountered rangers on the trail, too. Either way, I don't think I can say that I've passed hundreds of people on the trail at all. After all, hiking is not necessarily a social activity.

The one thing that I'm absolutely sure about is, that if you plan your outing more than a couple of weeks ahead of time, it is sure to rain. So I always carry a poncho.

In theory, though it may not work out in practice, after I am retired, I can take off for a hiking trip on short notice, although my wife may have a say in the matter. When you are young and unattached (jung und frei!), going on a hike was a spontaneous adventure and that is something I'd like to recapture. It doesn't help that I have to drive 75 miles to do that. When I was in college, the great outdoors was only five miles away.

[eyesup]

On 'Ye Olde Syte' we referred to that as enforced nudity. Being unable to not be naked while on a hike. I tried this once on a trail where I was about 99% certain I wouldn't encounter anyone. While it certainly caused me some anxiety, I didn't see anyone, I'm not sure it qualifies as a REAL, enforced nudity or hiking without a net.

It did alter my level of awareness as I was hyper aware trying to determine if anyone was around.

Duane

[BlueTrain]

I will agree that when nude, at least under certain conditions which I will conveniently not describe, there is an increased awareness of everything.

Which reminds me of something.

Someone said that a German nudist dares anyone to dispute his nudity. But an American is always looking over his shoulder when he is nude. That isn't the exact quote but close enough. If I were too apprehensive about being nude, with or without cover-up handy, I wouldn't be nude. Behave as the whole world were watching. Either that or draw the blinds.

It occurs to me that the intensely heightened senses are one of the things that makes outdoor nudity enjoyable. Indoors, too, I guess. But the best way is to be nude while you are active, both indoors and out.

[jbeegoode]

My poncho is a clear ultra light plastic. I think that even if I was wearing it or carrying it, it still qualifies as being "net free"...unless it gets some condensation, or I put a belt on it for the wind and the belt covers something.
Jbee

[JOhnGw]

Not strictly hiking, but I thought you might like to see this short clip of unsupported cycling from 2012.

[nuduke]

I have been seen nude (as well as naked) a few times[/l]

Interesting brackets there, Blue train.  Does that indicate a dislike of the word naked or perhaps, put better, a preference for nude as the appropriate term meaning without clothes?  I notice you use nude/nudity in the rest of your posts in this thread.  Do you make a distinction in meaning or nuance between naked and nude?

I ask this seemingly pedantic semantic question because back in the 'mists of time' we had a longish debate

on what Duane terms 'ye olde site' (that is TSNS The Secret Naturist Society) about which of the 'N' words we preferred and drew in critical assessment of terms such as Skyclad. 

That was a bit of fun, but what did emerge was that some people had very strong preferences one way or the other.  The main opinion was that naked had connotations of exposed and helpess whereas nude was just a more neutral description.

Time to revisit the subject perhaps?  Do you have any views either way, Blue Train?

John

[BlueTrain]

I like nude the best, although I happily use naked, too. But "naturist" to me, at least, has a broader connotation and includes those who don't get naked--or even nude. And I don't mean naturalist. But I don't sit up late thinking about it. Otherwise, the differences aren't important. And likewise, if I'm wearing something on my feet and something on my head, I'd still say I was naked in most people's eyes, including my own. So I guess I'm not a purist. Maybe I was just trying to cover my bases or trying hard to be funny. It got a response, though.

I do enjoy these discussions, though, since I have nothing better to do at the moment. (Two weeks to go--maybe--until I retire). I do think the term "free range naturism" is clever. I think someone else uses it on their website, too, or is that the old site I see referred to now and then? For hiking nude, I like the term "free hiking," although it isn't something I've ever used anywhere that I can think of. The old forum on the subject was entitled "naked hiking," which is good enough for me. I think that's what it was called, anyway. And obviously, I liked "hiking without a net."

Someone here says they are barefoot all over. I prefer "face all over."

[jbeegoode]

"Face all over!" 
Jbee

[Rebus]

I've often hiked without any coverup.  It's certainly more liberating to not have to carry anything.  It has on occasion put me in a bit of a predicament.  When I was in my 20's I worked at a paper mill.  They stink to high heaven and that odor permeates everything.  My wife often complained of the smell I brought home with me so I got in the habit of pulling off a couple miles from the mill and head down to the Columbia river (a very large river) about a quarter mile from the highway.  I'd strip and jump in to swim around some.  Sometimes when I had time I would swim across a bay to a large island and hike around it and swim back.  It was very rare to seen anyone there.  However, one day a car pulled in while I was in the water and disgorged a couple with young kids and the guy proceeded to throw in a fishing line.  It looked like they were planning to stay a while.

The river bank is thick with foliage and there are few openings one can get out of the water or even reach the actual shoreline.  The next one was over a quarter mile away. Well, I headed for the next one figuring I'd hike back to the car from the other side and I could perhaps get to it without being seen from the shoreline.  I had to bushwack back, sometimes through thick brush and some through open field and it was a circuitous route, but fortunately my feet were toughened up from lots of barefoot time so it didn't bother me.  I was 100% nude.  It took a while to swim, wade and hike the about three quarter mile route and when I got back to the car I discovered they were gone. I as usual drove the rest of the way home nude.