Signal gap on the High Sierra Trail surprised me

I finished the High Sierra Trail last fall, and what really stuck with me wasn't the views or the altitude. It was how quiet it was. I mean, I expected no cell service out there, but the total lack of human noise for five straight days was something else. No planes overhead, no distant cars, just wind and water. I started noticing every little sound, like rocks tumbling down a cliff or a pine cone dropping. It made me think about how we pack for routes but don't prepare for that kind of silence. Has anyone else done a long trail and been surprised by the quiet more than the physical challenge?

3 comments

3 Comments

nathankim2d ago

Honestly used to think the silence would be boring or even creepy on a long trail. But after my first overnight in Sequoia last year, it totally changed my mind. I was expecting to miss music or podcasts, but instead I started hearing things I never notice back home, like the way wind moves through different kinds of trees. That kind of quiet really makes you feel present in a way that nothing else does.

pat_roberts552d ago

Yeah, that part about hearing the wind move through different trees really hit home. I've had the same thing happen where you start to notice all those little sounds that just get drowned out by regular life. There's something about that kind of quiet that just settles you down in a way nothing else can.

hannah_west391d ago

Had a buddy who did the JMT a couple years back and he told me the quiet almost spooked him at first. He kept expecting to hear traffic or a plane but after day two he said his ears started picking up the weirdest stuff, like squirrels chewing pinecones and his own heartbeat. @nathankim that wind through different trees thing is spot on, he described the same exact feeling like the forest had its own voice he never noticed before. He said the silence was harder to get used to than the miles because his brain kept waiting for noise that never came.