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Bootpathguy
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PostWed Oct 25, 2017 3:13 pm 
The 3 senses of ( 3 of 5 traditional senses ) sight, sound and smell are really stimulated when I'm out hiking. More so when I'm solo and in more remote areas. Visual stimulation, for me, is typically the most rewarding. When I'm traveling through visually mundane landscape, hearing and smell kick in. Alot of the time, it's completely silent. Nothing at all. And the sound of silence, is so rewarding sometimes. ( I'll argue that silence is most definitely a sound ) Smell. God Damn! I absolutely love wilderness aromas. I'm so in tune with it. I love the way it changes at different elevations. Different areas of the Cascade range. West slope vs East slope. River bottoms. The way it smells in spring time in desert and arid landscape. Peninsula forests have a entirely different aroma. My favorite is East slope high alpine. It really is that unique aroma that keep calling me back to so many destinations in that area. It's often equal to the visual stimulation I receive. Put those 2 together... Heavenly up.gif biggrin.gif wink.gif

Experience is what'cha get, when you get what'cha don't want
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Schenk
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PostWed Oct 25, 2017 3:20 pm 
I am with you. In the Autumn the smells change dramatically! Decaying vegetation, the slightly wine-y smell of old huckleberries still on the bush. Elk and deer rutting, bear stink, the smell of cold rain and winter coming...I smell it all!

Nature exists with a stark indifference to humans' situation.
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Malachai Constant
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PostWed Oct 25, 2017 4:45 pm 
Do not forget the vanilla odor of sweet after death.

"You do not laugh when you look at the mountains, or when you look at the sea." Lafcadio Hearn
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HermitThrush
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PostWed Oct 25, 2017 4:48 pm 
Minnesota northern forest is by far my favorite wilderness smell, followed closely by high alpine meadows and alpine fir stand smell.

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MtnGoat
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PostWed Oct 25, 2017 5:00 pm 
The sweet loamy fir smell knocks me out every time I return to Pugetopolis for a visit....it kicks in right before the pass and I love it. Makes me realize how used to the ponderosa forest smell I am now.

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock. - Will Rogers
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olderthanIusedtobe
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PostWed Oct 25, 2017 5:29 pm 
The perfume wafting around the air from various flowers in bloom can be intoxicating. I've noticed some flowers aren't particularly odoriferous if you stick your nose right in the middle of it, but from a short distance away it's very sweet. Lupine is quite lovely. I also actually like the smell of skunk cabbage in the spring. While it's pungent, it's not an unpleasant odor to me.

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Bootpathguy
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PostWed Oct 25, 2017 5:55 pm 
Strangely but sadly, the smell of the first wildfire of the season. It's a aroma I can tolerate for only a short period of time The smell of fir sap & pine sap. Cottonwood trees in the spring time The smell of snow I could go on and on

Experience is what'cha get, when you get what'cha don't want
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neek
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PostWed Oct 25, 2017 7:34 pm 
I'm a silence seeker (wish I could live in an anechoic chamber) but only find true silence once every few years, usually in the desert or the dead of winter. Streams and insects and wind in the leaves are nice, but there's something magical about the complete lack of sound. Similar to the photonless experience that is hard to find outside of a cave.

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MtnGoat
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PostWed Oct 25, 2017 8:23 pm 
You'd love our RF isolation chamber at work. Thick door, sealed room, anechoic foam everywhere. Weird talking in there because of the no echoing at all.

Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock. - Will Rogers
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Waterman
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PostWed Oct 25, 2017 8:25 pm 
Whenever I came home from Alaska it was a priority to get up to Skykomish to visit friends and to get into the forest. The smell of decaying leaves,ferns, firs and birdsong. Looking forward to this is what enabled me to put up with the long grind of work.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost
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Bootpathguy
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PostWed Oct 25, 2017 9:31 pm 
Waterman wrote:
Whenever I came home from Alaska it was a priority to get up to Skykomish to visit friends and to get into the forest.
Interesting. What was lacking in Alaska that you found in Skykomish? Alaska seems like a treasure trove for wilderness aromas. Maybe it's the stereotype I have about Alaska and its wilderness.

Experience is what'cha get, when you get what'cha don't want
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huron
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PostWed Oct 25, 2017 9:47 pm 
Good topic. Need help to ID a smell. At treeline on rocky East side granite class 3 and 4 terrain there are two powerful smells that rub off on my hands. Sage is one. The other is a very powerful pine type smell that is slightly sweet and musty. Not the lower elevation pine smell. Very different. What could it be?

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Waterman
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PostThu Oct 26, 2017 8:32 am 
I worked on boats in a marine environment in western Alaska. Not alot of trees.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost
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Schenk
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PostThu Oct 26, 2017 10:29 am 
Bootpathguy wrote:
What was lacking in Alaska that you found in Skykomish?
I can't speak for Bootpathguy's situation, but Alaska has some pretty desolate spots. Ever been to Bethel? It is a treeless, windblown, harsh, silt dust covered, cold, and uninviting place...most of the time anyway.

Nature exists with a stark indifference to humans' situation.
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lookout bob
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lookout bob
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PostThu Oct 26, 2017 10:33 am 
love the smell of pine,hemlock and especially cedar after a wind. I really love the smell of ceanothus. cool.gif

"Altitude is its own reward" John Jerome ( from "On Mountains")
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