On Walking Alone

[Free hiker dave]

DF and I tend to get in the zone, solitude and the moment. It isn't always good when someone feels a requirement to make a social constant conversation out of a hike. Most of the time, We like each others quiet company.

Some hike with goals in mind, stress the exercise, and walk quicker. We often wander in amazement, taking photos. We'll get to be breathing hard sometimes, just to do that.

T So far, the nudity hasn't been much issue when getting together with others to hike or camp.
Jbee

There is too much to miss when someone is going on and on as a distraction. I prefer the conversation I have with nature. Like others, I have read Emerson over and over. 

[nuduke]

Yes indeed Freehiker Dave - I can relate to that

I have accepted nude hiking as a lone or solitary activity. It is challenging to find compatible hiking partners

I would love to have a regular hiking partner.  I have been on a couple of walks with Yeldew but we are quite distant from eachother so it makes arranging a walk difficult. 
With a regular hiking buddy, I wouldn't mind plenty of chat and if we were real buddies, I am sure the silences and the mutual enjoyment of the places we were in would flow naturally.
In the UK our island is very crowded and it's difficult to get solitude to hike.  Therefore a companion offers some protection from those that disapprove.  One naked man walking along is interpreted as a pervert but two together is a club and notionally more acceptable! Well, that's my feeling anyway.
John

[Davie]

I do walk solo and find quiet countryside even close to Brum. It's worth checking Facebook for local rambling groups. 16 of us enjoyed a walk yesterday in the Staffordshire countryside. Very unusually one individual shouted some abuse at us. We were on a public path but off our usual route. One of those occasions when we had strength in numbers so could just ignore him and carry on.

Davie 

[Free hiker dave]

Yes indeed Freehiker Dave - I can relate to that

I have accepted nude hiking as a lone or solitary activity. It is challenging to find compatible hiking partners

I would love to have a regular hiking partner. I have been on a couple of walks with Yeldew but we are quite distant from eachother so it makes arranging a walk difficult. 
With a regular hiking buddy, I wouldn't mind plenty of chat and if we were real buddies, I am sure the silences and the mutual enjoyment of the places we were in would flow naturally.
In the UK our island is very crowded and it's difficult to get solitude to hike. Therefore a companion offers some protection from those that disapprove. One naked man walking along is interpreted as a pervert but two together is a club and notionally more acceptable! Well, that's my feeling anyway.
John

Years ago, I had a good hiking buddy, which was rare. We meet a few times each summer, camping, and hiking. We usually hiked in silence. The conversation was saved until we were back at camp. The silence was necessary. Only in the quiet of nature could we hear a rattlesnake's warning. The sound of a rattlesnake is very different than what you are led to believe from the Old Western Movies. The difference from then to now is I am no longer willing to tailor my interest to suit a hiking buddy. I count myself blessed because I have places to go that are not popular.  I am not stuck trying to work with another's schedule. I work half days. I'm free to hike afternoons, making the best of very short summers here in the Northwest. For me, the mountains and vast open spaces of the Western USA are like going to church and meeting with God face to face.

[jbeegoode]

Yes indeed Freehiker Dave - I can relate to that

I have accepted nude hiking as a lone or solitary activity. It is challenging to find compatible hiking partners

I would love to have a regular hiking partner. I have been on a couple of walks with Yeldew but we are quite distant from eachother so it makes arranging a walk difficult. 
With a regular hiking buddy, I wouldn't mind plenty of chat and if we were real buddies, I am sure the silences and the mutual enjoyment of the places we were in would flow naturally.
In the UK our island is very crowded and it's difficult to get solitude to hike. Therefore a companion offers some protection from those that disapprove. One naked man walking along is interpreted as a pervert but two together is a club and notionally more acceptable! Well, that's my feeling anyway.
John

Years ago, I had a good hiking buddy, which was rare. We meet a few times each summer, camping, and hiking. We usually hiked in silence. The conversation was saved until we were back at camp. The silence was necessary. Only in the quiet of nature could we hear a rattlesnake's warning. The sound of a rattlesnake is very different than what you are led to believe from the Old Western Movies. The difference from then to now is I am no longer willing to tailor my interest to suit a hiking buddy. I count myself blessed because I have places to go that are not popular.  I am not stuck trying to work with another's schedule. I work half days. I'm free to hike afternoons, making the best of very short summers here in the Northwest. For me, the mountains and vast open spaces of the Western USA are like going to church and meeting with God face to face.

Amen, heart to heart.

It all keeps me tuned.

The rattlesnakes are something to listen and watch for and anticipate. They only seem to show up when my vigilance is distracted, by something.
Jbee

[Free hiker dave]

While Emerson wrote about the spiritual connection felt in nature, as transcendentalism, Herny David Thoreau wrote more about the value of solo walks. He put Emerson's ideas into action and tested them. Years before, I stumbled on his writings, finding them a helpful attitude guide.       

[RiverNude]

I do walk solo and find quiet countryside even close to Brum. It's worth checking Facebook for local rambling groups. 16 of us enjoyed a walk yesterday in the Staffordshire countryside. Very unusually one individual shouted some abuse at us. We were on a public path but off our usual route. One of those occasions when we had strength in numbers so could just ignore him and carry on.

Davie 

Had to laugh at a memory this brought up. I'd been hiking nude around Deep Creek Hot Springs, and through the canyon, all day long. The hot springs area is very nude-friendly, and seeing nude people around the springs is just another typical scene. The trails are nude-friendly, too, although only a few will actually hike the trails nude. On my way back to my campsite at Bowen Ranch, hiking nude, of course, I was aware that a clothed male hiker was maintaining my pace about fifty yards behind me. Just before the last steep climb to the ranch, I paused for a drink and a quick breather. The clothed guy finally caught up and passed me. As he approached, I greeted him with something like "It's a beautiful day". He just grumbled something negative about the "scenery from his point of view" as he stomped past me, head down. Well, he had two choices...slow down and let me get beyond sight, or speed up and pass me! You know the old saying, "If you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes!" LOL!

[Free hiker dave]

I do walk solo and find quiet countryside even close to Brum. It's worth checking Facebook for local rambling groups. 16 of us enjoyed a walk yesterday in the Staffordshire countryside. Very unusually one individual shouted some abuse at us. We were on a public path but off our usual route. One of those occasions when we had strength in numbers so could just ignore him and carry on.

Davie 

Had to laugh at a memory this brought up. I'd been hiking nude around Deep Creek Hot Springs, and through the canyon, all day long. The hot springs area is very nude-friendly, and seeing nude people around the springs is just another typical scene. The trails are nude-friendly, too, although only a few will actually hike the trails nude. On my way back to my campsite at Bowen Ranch, hiking nude, of course, I was aware that a clothed male hiker was maintaining my pace about fifty yards behind me. Just before the last steep climb to the ranch, I paused for a drink and a quick breather. The clothed guy finally caught up and passed me. As he approached, I greeted him with something like "It's a beautiful day". He just grumbled something negative about the "scenery from his point of view" as he stomped past me, head down. Well, he had two choices...slow down and let me get beyond sight, or speed up and pass me! You know the old saying, "If you ain't the lead dog, the scenery never changes!" LOL!

Indeed if you don't like the view, don't complain, change it and smile.  Equally, know thy self. If you are uncomfortable with nudity, then stay away from places where nudity is going to happen. If you are only there to look at the women, then accept you will be seeing naked men too, get over it.  I dislike men who come to nudist hangouts to watch women. There are places for that, as long as you buy beers.

[jbeegoode]

While Emerson wrote about the spiritual connection felt in nature, as transcendentalism, Herny David Thoreau wrote more about the value of solo walks. He put Emerson's ideas into action and tested them. Years before, I stumbled on his writings, finding them a helpful attitude guide.     

I read Thoreau as a teenager, then naturally investigated Emerson. I was influenced by his thoughts on individuality. It was a bedrock for me in a late sixties world of unquestioned conformity, that accused me of just being contrary, or out for attention.

It got me to question everything and to experiment and take action from Thoreau's examples. It was an era of questioning authority. I consequently wasn't alone. I questioned everything, including war, government, sexual mores, money and its structures, the mind altering substances, fashion and lack of fashion, on and on, everything. So went the naturist evolution in me. So went the naturalist and that spirituality in me.

I have kept many of the values that I changed, and always changed, some experiments didn't turn out well, some did. In many ways, life feels like solo walks. 

Anyway, I know the virtue of nudity. It is good. So, screw 'em, I'm gonna do it my way.
Jbee

[Free hiker dave]

Emerson and Thoreau were evident in a few things. You can't go into the woods with a group and gain a real spiritual connection. You can't gain validation through a group. This is solo work. There is only one person able to validate your nudism. That is you. The simple truth is being a nudist is an act of being independent, thinking outside the box, and accepting the world will be against you. They will call you names. Some will try to jail you. That is the way it is when you refuse to conform.

The other sad truth is nudist groups don't give validation. As soon as you leave, what you think is validation fades. And you are right back feeling all the discomfort of wanting to be a nudist and at the same time be part of the more significant group or general culture. You suddenly discover you still need to do the solo work of true self-acceptance and developing a thick rhino hide while you work at being what you want. You must defy those around you and devise a creative workaround for your nudism.

 The art of solo naked hiking is a deliberate act of exposing yourself to the greater forces of naked nature. Being aware of things that are small and great. Something will spark child-like amazement in you that if you were in a group would be dismissed as nothing. Solo-naked hiking opens and awakens the explorer. Solo-naked hiking requires courage, self-confidence, and independence.

Unlike Jbee, discovered Thoreau in my thirties. By then I had been a naked wanderer. When I began reading his writings, I felt a kinship with him. I got him. He was writing to me.
 

[jbeegoode]

Clothed, or not, there is an element of solo hiking in "wilderness" that has to muster some courage. It is more dangerous alone, no back-up. A stumble, fall, wrong trail, and/or emergency can be fatal.  During encounters with animals, solitary instead of two or more, you don't out number them. While I may miss something, my partner might not. So, I see doing this nude as one of the minor concerns, or fears.

On the other hand, nude, there can be a sense of being closer to other forms of life, or nature, or a God. With full senses, more aware, closer to myself and faith in that. I find this more so when I'm naked. All of these can be protection, or confidence on a remote trail, or even life's journey.  Thinking somewhat like the 23rd Psalm, I am closer to an abandonment to a higher power, and even more so when naked. It is some amount of surrender and faith. It is to be and feel more primal and our innate being in nature, is a protection that we are born with. It is something that gets lost here and there and needs to be used in order to keep it, or rekindled. (sorry for the odd paragraph structure, I should probably elaborate more. I hope that all goes together for your understanding, and you identify with it)

Naked is more real, authentic and to be what is the richness of our humanity. On a trail, solo, is certainly that.
Jbee

[nuduke]

There is only one person able to validate your nudism. That is you. The simple truth is being a nudist is an act of being independent, thinking outside the box, and accepting the world will be against you. They will call you names. Some will try to jail you. That is the way it is when you refuse to conform.
......you still need to do the solo work of true self-acceptance and developing a thick rhino hide while you work at being what you want. You must defy those around you and devise a creative workaround for your nudism.
 The art of solo naked hiking is a deliberate act of exposing yourself to the greater forces of naked nature. Being aware of things that are small and great. Something will spark child-like amazement in you that if you were in a group would be dismissed as nothing. Solo-naked hiking opens and awakens the explorer. Solo-naked hiking requires courage, self-confidence, and independence.

Heavens above, Dave, that is so eloquent and I totally relate to your drift.  It makes me realise I lack courage in manifesting my naturism as I would want it.  The pressures to conform are high and the dangers many.  But when I do achieve naked in nature the feelings you so clearly relate those that I definitely relate to and experience.
John

[Safebare]

I have to say, without a doubt, this is the most moving and connecting thread that I have been party to in all my days of interacting on social media.
It reminds me of a few times where I mentally and spiritually connected with someone that I hardly, if at all, knew beforehand.
Y'all are awesome!
Stay Safe, Stay Bare! And get out there!

[RiverNude]

Throughout life, I've had a lot of good experiences with a few good friends, but mostly, my adventures have been solo, both by choice and by necessity. Ed Abbey summed it up well, for me and for himself...

“Most of my wandering in the desert I've done alone. Not so much from choice as from necessity - I generally prefer to go into places where no one else wants to go. I find that in contemplating the natural world my pleasure is greater if there are not too many others contemplating it with me, at the same time.”
― Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire

[Free hiker dave]

Throughout life, I've had a lot of good experiences with a few good friends, but mostly, my adventures have been solo, both by choice and by necessity. Ed Abbey summed it up well, for me and for himself...

“Most of my wandering in the desert I've done alone. Not so much from choice as from necessity - I generally prefer to go into places where no one else wants to go. I find that in contemplating the natural world my pleasure is greater if there are not too many others contemplating it with me, at the same time.”
― Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire

I came to  Edward Abbey and Desert Solitaire in my 40s. I loved his thinking, agreeing with most of his words. Shortly after reading Abbey, I came across a lesser know author  Craig Childs and his book The Secret Knowledge of Water.  Later read many of his other books. I could relate to his many solo explorations of the desert and canyon lands of the southwestern US. These authors have given me plenty to think about and how they apply to my nude hiking.