How was your month for Free Range Naturism?

[JOhnGw]

Jbee's post reminded me that I felt a bit strange the first time I went to the Euronat baker's to get fresh croissants and rolls - I was the only nude amongst a couple of dozen fully clothed customers, but I was in the right - not them.

EXTRACTS FROM THE CENTRE’S BYELAWS
• All users must adopt total nudity in all parts of the centre, including the shopping mall.

[Greenbare Woods]

Jbee's post reminded me that I felt a bit strange the first time I went to the Euronat baker's to get fresh croissants and rolls - I was the only nude amongst a couple of dozen fully clothed customers, but I was in the right - not them.

That looks like a great place to live or to visit.  Shame the natives don't take advantage of their own freedom.   Or were you meaning tourists from other places who don't go naked? 

[JOhnGw]

Jbee's post reminded me that I felt a bit strange the first time I went to the Euronat baker's to get fresh croissants and rolls - I was the only nude amongst a couple of dozen fully clothed customers, but I was in the right - not them.

That looks like a great place to live or to visit.  Shame the natives don't take advantage of their own freedom.   Or were you meaning tourists from other places who don't go naked?

The two dozen were all holiday visitors who were (presumably) naked at other times.
Apparently they dress when they get out of bed so that they can undress again later in the day.
I stay totally naked 24/7 except that my wife likes me to dress for dinner in the restaurants so I wear espadrilles.

[eyesup]

. . . I'm supposing that the experience of walking around in public nude was different for you. . . I still feel apprehension sometimes when nude around others, especially if they are clothed. We come out of a clothed society, and get used to it. Then, when getting naked it takes a moment or several to adjust.

I'll walk into a nudist situation and my eyes may be darting everywhere at first, then poof, I'm back to normal.

Hmmm?
The fact it was a CO facility made it easier. Obviously!

Still, I was trying to watch others facial expressions and body language to try and gauge the reaction. I was making small steps, being cautious. I became aware that if I looked closely at people, I might give the impression of staring, so I just tried to see as much as possible in a casual glance.

After my hike, I was sitting at that picnic table next to the parking lot and jotting down notes, people would walk past, see me and just walk on. There were several young women that walked past, 20-30’s, wearing just flip-flops and nothing else. Same thing. I don’t recall seeing any naked young MEN. Is that normal at these places?

Then, I realized I was over thinking it in a self-centered view. I was thinking that they would see me as ME. Not just some guy in the camp. Dumb. So I tried to calm down and act like I would anywhere else. Like I said, the walk up to the ghost town allowed me to get used to being there in a way similar to my solitary hikes in the desert. That helped.

What else did you notice and how did you see yourself change?

Oddly, using the restroom. That is probably the one place we ALL expect privacy. Most of us beyond a certain age are familiar with group nudity because of our experiences in public school and PE classes. This was totally different. Not automatically getting that privacy was unexpected.

I had read the brochure explaining all this, yet when it came time to walk in I did the same as most. I didn’t want to embarrass myself or anyone else. More than once I saw men and women walk up to the door to the bath house and pause to stick their head around the door and look in before entering. I wasn’t alone there.

I do remember noticing the window next to the urinals, AFTER I standing there. I don’t remember seeing it as I walked up. I guess that’s a type of progress.

When I decided to take the walk around the camping area, I was sort of surprised at how few naked people I saw on the trail. One or two but most moved from place to place wearing something.

There was a young lady, always naked, that I bumped into a couple times, every time I saw her she was singing. Nothing I recognized though. But she was confident enough to be naked, walking and singing. If I had tried that the place probably would have emptied.

By the time I was leaving, I hadn’t forgot that I was naked but I was comfortable being one of the few people out and about wearing nothing.

I was happy at my realization of how much I was enjoying it. My 1st CO visit was a personal achievement!

Duane

[BlueTrain]

When we were travelling in Europe a few years ago, we stopped for gas on some major highway, I think in France. Of course, everyone goes to the restroom when you stop. Long line outside of the lady's room. But a few younger girls were using the men's room, too. No big deal for most, apparently.

[nuduke]

My 1st CO visit was a personal achievement!

That's good to hear, Duane.  I think of you as an enormously experienced FR Naturist but of course I forget that you are an SN i.e. a lone hiker 99% of the time.  So it's surprising and gratifying to hear of your 'learning curve' in a social CO context.  And a good thing it was positive.

My experience over many years, albeit relatively infrequently as a FR / SN Naturist has been peppered here and there with social naturism experiences, visiting a few CO clubs and Abbey House and recently the swim I reported a few weeks ago.  So I have become comfortable in CO /Social Naturism circumstances and can report from memory and more recent experience that it doesn't take long to settle down to the normality of these situations when/where they occur.  I wish, however that my horizons could be wider from the little woodland and field worlds that I have occupied hitherto and that I had easy to find, deserted locations to walk in where the weather is clement and the terrain stunning - like you and Jbee.
John

[eyesup]

. .  I forget that you are an SN i.e. a lone hiker 99% of the time.  So it's surprising and gratifying to hear of your 'learning curve' in a social CO context.

Keep in mind that because of my limited time, I didn’t get in a pool and soak. Something that I have read here from JohnP, Bob and Jbee is best experienced over a couple hours. I truly wanted to but I expect I’ll be back. I’ll make in there.

Getting in a pool and hopefully conversation, is something that should be done at leisure not in a hurry and then jumping up to announce that, “I’m late, I’m late! For a very important date”.

I am accustomed to being naked outside. That doesn’t bother me. So walking naked into the office, which was a room of people, was totally different. Being outside with people around didn’t make as nervous as I thought it would.

Someone that hasn’t ever been naked anywhere other than their home would have had several things on their mind all at once. I guess my previous experience helped.

Duane

[rrfalcon]

When we were travelling in Europe a few years ago, we stopped for gas on some major highway, I think in France. Of course, everyone goes to the restroom when you stop. Long line outside of the lady's room. But a few younger girls were using the men's room, too. No big deal for most, apparently.

Even in Paris, at the Musee d'Orsay, the long line for the women's rest room had females using the stalls in the men's room. Again, no big deal, even with them having to walk past the row of men using the urinals.

[BlueTrain]

That was one museum I did not visit. I was getting tired. But I saw Napoleon's tomb.

[Safebare]

I crossed the English Channel in 1978, from Dover to Calais.  A friend was enlisted with the USAF.  He, his wife and me and my wife spent 2 months cruising through Europe in a VW van.  We camped in Calais.  The camp ground was relatively empty as it was definitely off season.  My first exposure to European bathroom rituals was at this campground.  The sewer was an open ditch but the shower/toilet facilities were fairly modern.  The urinals were all on the outside of the building. Well, the men's were anyway.  A porcelain urinal hanging on the exterior wall where you stood for all the world to see.  The women's urinals were behind closed doors.  They had foot pads and a drain.  I guess you either didn't wear panties, or took them off outside.  I could see how you could drop you drawers while perched on the foot pads.
Inside the block were a common dressing/undressing room with sinks and mirrors, crapper stalls and a communal shower room.  The four of us used the facilities without blinking an eye, but I was intrigued by the prospect of a busy weekend, when strangers would be using the facilities with abandon.  We encountered truck drivers along the way, stopping to pee.  They would simply stand to the back of their rig and watch traffic pass while they did their business.  I happen to like driving without the hassle of clothes and always look for safe places to stretch and take care of business without offending anyone.  What a releif it would be to be able to simply pull over and let nature take it's course.

Travel well, travel bare,
Safebare

[nuduke]

Well, gentlemen,
My month for FRN was considerably uplifted yesterday when I went to the Sleaford Swim and met up with our very own Yeldew (Norman).
Hurrah, another encounter in person with a member of the forum.  I've clocked up a few now, haven't I?


I easily located Norman as we arrived at the leisure centre as he wears a distinctive kilt (distinctive because he was the only one wearing one!) and from the moment we met we struck up a most pleasant and fluent stream of conversation.  This has been typical of my experience meeting SNs and FRNs who I (we) have been corresponding with for some time on the forum both here in Munro's land and of old, in Lookee's parish.  My finding has always been when meeting a forum colleague in the flesh, that there are no surprises in the person you discover face to face.  Their character and demeanour and something of their personality is conveyed in the forum correspondence and so you meet that person.  The pleasant consequence is that the conversation just picks up as it were from the last post on the forum.  So it was with Norman.  Physically I had not formed much of an impression as I can't remember a photo of him but the tall, lean gentleman I encountered with a ready smile was no surprise.


We chatted a bit and then we went our ways for the available recreation - I did a bit of training, a spot of yoga and swam and steam-roomed the rest of the time away.  We crossed paths outside the sauna which Norman had just emerged from and was showering in the ante chamber and remarked that a cool shower after sauna-ing left him cooled down and prevented perspiration afterwards and particularly after dressing.  He was under the cool shower for some minutes and remarked after I enquired that it wasn't particularly cold.  I went under it - it was freezing!  Norman, you obviously have a considerable tolerance for cold!


At the end of the swim session, I sat with Norman and the three companions he usually travels to the swim with and a cheery conversation proceeded, jumping here and there and digressing, as conversations do, which as I remarked half way through, was not unlike a forum post here!


Norman's heavily bewhiskered friend Bruce (hope I remembered the name right) was as deep a pedant as myself and, with Bruce's wife (whose name escapes me), we had an intense few minutes on whether a certain type of meat pasty found in Scotland was a square shape or a trapezoid and argued for some minutes on the use of the adjectives Scots, Scotch and Scottish.  Bruce averred that only the adjective Scots should be used for anything pertaining to or arising from Scotland and that Scotch and Scottish were actually incorrect.  I wasn't so sure given the prevalence of the use of the two apparently inappropriate terms and suggested that Scotch was the term applied to inanimate objects such as Scotch Pie, Scotch Bonnet and Scotch Whisky.  So I had to look this up (searched for "Correct use of the adjective Scotch" and there's plenty of stuff out there.  So for Norman's benefit to convey to Bruce, the following seems to be the accepted consolidated opinion of the lexicographers and encyclopaediarists:   


Scots, Scotch and Scottish have been around in frequent and common usage at least since the 16th century, Shakespeare uses

Scotch and Scottish.  Robbie Burns uses Scotch on numerous occasions.  All three terms are accepted as appropriate usage in Scotland and elsewhere but each has a specific bias or nuance.

Thus

Scots is used to refer to people, culture, language, law, citizen etc.

Scotch is used primarily for inanimate and culinary nouns -  Scotch Whisky, Scotch Pie, Scotch Bonnet, Scotch Beef, Egg, Broth, Pine (although the latter is also known as Scots Pine!) etc. 

Scottish refers to things pertaining to Scotland or its people - Scottish literature, ancestry, affairs, parliament, character etc. 

I read that the Scottish people prefer Scots or Scottish in the contexts above and dislike Scotch intensely but accept its common usage for objects foods and products.  The usage of Scotch particularly has declined markedly in recent times and Scots seems to be much the preferred term for all things Scottish (sic) these days.

And it is I feel actually incorrect to say that anything other than Scots is wrong usage - so let's scotch that fallacy!
Of course the use of the word scotch in the preceding sentence has nothing to do with Scots people or land - it is an ancient word for a wedge under the wheel to stop a cart or other vehicle from moving!


Very pleasant meeting you in person Norman and I look forward to following up to see if we can meet up for a walk in your woods sometime.


John

[Rollo]

My opportunities for nude hiking are somewhat limited, so when conditions allow, I jump at the chance.  I was on vacation earlier this month and hit the trails in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

My first hike was an 8.1 mile round trip and took a bit over three hours.  When I arrived at the trailhead I was somewhat disappointed to find a pretty active parking lot.  I changed into my hiking shorts at the side of my car and headed for the trail.  When I hadn’t met anyone after the first thirty minutes, I decided to tuck my clothes into my pack and enjoy the nature trail ... naturally.  This mountain trail afforded a good measure of peace, quiet and solitude.  In fact, I didn’t see a soul for the rest of the trail and only donned my shorts when I was ready to cross the parking lot to head for my car.

The next day, I hit a different trail for a 6.2 mile round trip.  This hike included a pretty tough climb right out of the chutes.  The trail ran parallel to a valley stream for some time and then headed into the solitude of the backcountry.  Almost immediately after disappearing into the forest, my clothes disappeared into my pack ... just me, my hiking boots and my pack for 2.5 hours of nude hiking.

My final opportunity for freehiking was a bit more interesting.  As soon as I hit the trail, my shirt went in my pack and I tucked my shorts through the netting of my pack just in case I needed them for quick cover.  Jbee often talks about acting confidently and naturally when we encounter people on the trail.  So when I noticed a gentleman approaching, I simply continued my stride and offered a friendly greeting as we met.  No response ... absolutely nothing!  I guess no response is better than a negative response.  I pressed on.  After some time, I heard voices.  This time, it was three backpackers, but just as I was closing the gap, they suddenly branched off to a diverging trail.  I literally passed fifteen feet behind them, but remained totally undetected.  I continued to my planned turnaround point and started back.  Soon afterwards I noticed two hikers approaching.  When they were about twenty feet away, I noticed that it was a father and perhaps a twelve year old son.  Since it was a minor, I grabbed my shorts and held them in front of me to cover while we passed.  Twenty feet later, I stuffed my shorts back into the netting and completed my hike.  Another 8.2 miles and more than three hours of nude hiking.

All together, I enjoyed over 20 miles and around 9 hours of nude hiking.  When I bumped into people, I acted naturally and found that it didn’t present any problems.  Always great to enjoy nature trails naturally ... eager for the next opportunity.

Rollo

[jbeegoode]

Eager for your next report.
Thank-you,
Jbee

[eyesup]

Rollo, the one time I was near the Great Smokey Mountains, ready and prepared to camp and hike, it was pouring buckets and wasn’t letting up. The cloud level was probably at about 2000 ft. I slept overnight in my car in a parking lot in Gatlinburg. When I woke up it was still raining. I truly wanted to spend a couple nights there but I was on the return leg of a roadtrip and couldn’t wait.

Did you get any pictures? Mrs. E and I eventually plan a trip there to do the camping and hiking I missed, but it is on the distant horizon. My 1st time started from Houston. The next one would begin 1,200 miles farther west.

Long trip, but it’ll be fun!

Duane

[Rollo]

Eyesup ... I took a few pictures, but apparently they’re too large to post here.  I hiked one additional day on the Appalachian Trail at around 6,000’.  This particular trail is very heavily traveled so I had previously decided that it would be a clothed hike.  Besides, it was about 40° F.   Although I was looking forward to some spectacular vistas, my final day was shrouded in a layer of low stratus clouds.

Rollo