Is it okay to listen to headphones while you’re out on the trail? Wouldn’t your outdoor experience be more enhanced through the sounds of nature? Let’s explore the varying opinions on headphones while hiking.
Tedious Terrain
The most obvious argument for wearing those headphones out on the trail is to combat boredom. I know that many out there are thinking, “well if hiking makes you so bored, then why are you out there?“. That’s a fair point. We have found that, especially for our multi-day hikes, having something to listen to can really help get our minds in the right place. Sometimes the terrain can just get boring when you’re heading out to a destination. Other times you might have a long road walk to get through. Additionally, there are times when your body or brain just doesn’t feel like walking, but you still have to get up and go. Those are times when having music or an audiobook will help your mind focus.
Learn Something New
Hiking, especially long distances, gives you a lot of time. With the availability of audiobooks and podcasts, it can become more than just a walk through the woods. This time can be used to listen to that classic novel you’ve meant to read. You could listen to an educational podcast to pick up pointers on a new skill. There are an almost unlimited number of podcasts and books on every subject imaginable.
Safety First
With headphones in, the mind becomes focused on that song or podcast. Your ability to assess your surroundings diminishes. While this may detract from the true outdoor experience, the bigger concern is safety. If your music is cranked up all the way, you might not hear that branch falling above you, or your hiking partner’s calls for help. Hiking headphone free keeps your ears open to cautionary calls.
Enhanced Experience
Another reason to consider hiking headphone free is the “experience” of being in the woods. There are so many interesting sounds from birds, to waterfalls. You may stroll right on past a hidden stream or rare animal if you aren’t able to hear them first.
Hiking Etiquette
One “solution” we’ve seen to the above is to use an external speaker to listen to music while hiking, which keeps the ears open to surrounding noise. The problem with this is that speakers don’t allow other hikers a choice in listening. Anyone passing by, or hiking with someone with a speaker is forced to hear what the speaker is blaring out.
On the flip side, we’ve come across hikers with both headphones in who don’t have any awareness of their surroundings. No amount of pole-clicking, coughing, or chatting will get them to turn around. Ultimately this is also poor trail etiquette. Slower hikers need to be aware of faster hikers approaching behind them, and allow them to pass when safe.
The point is, hikers should always be aware of what’s around while they’re hiking. Everyone deserves to choose their own experience. While each of us is enjoying the outdoors in our own way, we all need to ensure we are not harming someone else’s adventure.
Ultimately, it depends…
For our final thoughts on headphones and hiking… it’s up to you! When we do use headphones on the trail, we typically wear only one earbud so we can hear what’s around us. We also keep the volume fairly low, so as not to allow any noise pollution to leak out. If music or a an audiobook makes your outdoor experience more enjoyable, then by all means, listen away. Just keep in mind that there may be others out there who may not want to hear your beats, so just keep it to yourself.
Recommendations
On our long distance hikes, we really enjoy using the Amazon Audible service for audio books. By clicking on our affiliate link below, you can get a 30-day free trial of Audible, which includes 2 free books. After that it’s $14.95 per month, which gets you 1 credit for a book, and 30% off any additional purchased books. We really like it because you can essentially “pause” your membership when you get a little backlog of books/credits, and they let you keep all the books that you download. You can download the books to your phone so you can listen in offline mode when you’re deep in the woods.
For music, we used Spotify for a little while, then switched over to Amazon Unlimited Music. We’re already Amazon Prime members, so it just made sense to sign up for the Amazon Unlimited music. They let you download songs directly to your device, so you don’t need any cell reception or Wi-Fi to keep listening. They have millions of songs in all genres. We have had no problem finding music from every artist that we can possibly think of. Similar to the Audible trial, click the banner below for a 30-day Unlimited Music trial.
Do you have any opinions? Let us know in the comments below!
