Being a zombie is no bueno. Don’t get me wrong, I think zombies rock. I watch marathons of zombie movies, even poorly made ones. But, over the past week I’ve suffered some insane insomnia and was feeling a bit undead myself.
After another night of no sleep I decided to hit a hiking trail in hopes that some mother nature would do the trick. The sun and the 110 degree Arizona heat.
The trails were bare of other hikers but one. I saw him coming towards me along the trail, shambling across the rock, zombie-like.
Zombie or not, I try to be nice to anyone I meet along the trail so I greeted him but this one would have none of it. I tried to make eye contact but he kept his head down. Then, when we were nearly on top of each other, I heard…
The tinny sound of headphones, volume near maximum. The unmistakable white earbuds of an Ipod lodged in his ears. He shot me a sideways glance, looked ahead, put his head back down and shambled on.
Now, I love me some music. Got gigs full on dedicated drives, even. But what I don’t understand is hiking the outdoors with tunes blasting over the sounds of birds, breeze, and rocks crunching underfoot.
Admittedly, I’ve tried hiking with music but I only make it a few minutes before I roll up the earbuds and shove them into a pocket. They only make me feel separate, alien even, from the environment.
Frankly, hiking with music, earbuds clogging the sounds of the world around you, seems against the point of hiking. The point of getting outdoors is to actually get outdoors. Not to cocoon yourself in some musical bubble.
I finished my hike, brains intact. That night I got the rest I’d been severely lacking. I even let sounds from my Ipod lull me to sleep. The following morning I returned to my “normal” live self but kept thinking of the zombie hiker… did he get from his hike what he was looking for?