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Chico
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Chico
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PostMon Nov 27, 2017 4:54 pm 
Love the smell of bacon frying in a skillet over an open campfire or even a stove.

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MesiJezi
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PostTue Nov 28, 2017 3:42 pm 
I always wondered what that slightly spicy scent was! It's hard to top on a warm, dry summer day in the trees. For some reason it makes me want to lay on the ground and lake a nap. It sure makes the forest feel warm and inviting. One of my other favorite scents is the sage on a warm summer day in Eastern WA. Also there are days in the spring when the smell of flowers on the trees in north Seattle is just insanely good.

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silence
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silence
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PostTue Nov 28, 2017 4:56 pm 
I love the scents of all seasons in the wilderness, but I'm also a sound person ... and silence is sublime.

PHOTOS FILMS Keep a good head and always carry a light bulb. – Bob Dylan
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jimmymac
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PostFri Dec 01, 2017 10:08 pm 
I enjoy the sounds that only bubble to the surface when there is silence. The sounds of silence, as it were. Carne Basin on a sunny weekday in October. No breeze, no bugs, no voices, no aircraft. Complete silence, or so it would seem. Then, from the opposite side of the basin, the distinct sound of trickling makes itself known. In between my breathing, this "creek" dribbling at less than 5 GPM has become the prominent sound in the basin. But only by default. It's signature could be easily overshadowed by a single horse fly. That's what I like most about silence. Its intimacy spotlights sounds that otherwise never make the stage.

"Profound serenity is the product of unfaltering Trust and heightened vulnerability."
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Kascadia
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PostSat Dec 02, 2017 12:42 pm 
Faint metallic smell of ice axe against very cold, dry snow. There is a particular sound that goes with this also - wilderness visitors.

It is as though I had read a divine text, written into the world itself, not with letters but rather with essential objects, saying: Man, stretch thy reason hither, so thou mayest comprehend these things. Johannes Kepler
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Bootpathguy
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PostSat Dec 02, 2017 7:31 pm 
jimmymac wrote:
No breeze, no bugs, no voices, no aircraft. Complete silence, or so it would seem. Then, from the opposite side of the basin, the distinct sound of trickling makes itself known. In between my breathing, this "creek" dribbling at less than 5 GPM has become the prominent sound in the basin. But only by default. Its signature could be easily overshadowed by a single horse fly. That's what I like most about silence. Its intimacy spotlights sounds that otherwise never make the stage.
Bingo! Spot on! Thats been many of my backcountry experiences That was expressed so eloquently Reading that gives me goosebumps Thanks for that

Experience is what'cha get, when you get what'cha don't want
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Bootpathguy
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PostSun Apr 15, 2018 8:05 pm 
"Being Hear" Great short documentary

Experience is what'cha get, when you get what'cha don't want
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Downhill
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PostWed Aug 08, 2018 12:59 pm 
I think I'm in the same camp as Bootpathguy, preferring the smells on the eastern slopes of the cascades. Similarly, I find that I'm much more attuned to these smells (sounds, sights, etc.) when I'm alone. I like the differing smells with changes in altitude, exposure/aspect, season, time of day and weather. The oddest sensory experience I had in the mountains occurred many years ago while climbing the direct NW face route on Half Dome. At the end of the 4th day of climbing, we were just 1 pitch below the summit. Other than my partner and the climbing, I hadn't had any human interaction since leaving the Mist Trail 5 days earlier. My senses had been tuned only to the sights, smells, and sounds of the face and the climb. As we began climbing this last pitch, I smelled cigarette smoke and perfume. My mind couldn't process the incongruence of these two "civilized" smells, 4 days and 2000 feet up a climb. I looked around and saw above me, a young couple who had undoubtedly hiked up the cable route on the other side, and were now sitting on the diving board/visor that overhangs the face. I had been feeling very cut off from the rest of the world for nearly a week but these smells jolted me back to the reality that civilization was close and my remoteness had only been my state of mind.

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Schenk
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PostWed Aug 08, 2018 2:33 pm 
Places in the Bighorns last week were spicy and smelled a bit like cloves at times. I assume it was one of the final flowering plants of Summer up there. Other places smelled like hot turpentine in the trees...like the place was ready to explode with a spark.

Nature exists with a stark indifference to humans' situation.
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Bootpathguy
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PostMon Oct 01, 2018 11:14 am 
At this point of my adventure
and the remaining distance to my final destination. The air is saturated with the aroma of blueberries. Awesome!!! Wish I'd had frying pan, pancake mix and maple syrup

Experience is what'cha get, when you get what'cha don't want
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philfort
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PostMon Oct 01, 2018 1:05 pm 
Sculpin wrote:
On warm summer days (especially in June when the new growth is on), the pine parklands in the foothills on the east side of the Cascades are fragrant with Ceanothus velutinus. It smells like a mixture of cinnamon and tobacco to me.
Hmm, there's some plant I recall seeing/smelling everywhere in the Pasayten that smelled like Christmas (cinnamon, cloves, allspice, etc...). We rubbed it on our pillows at night. But it didn't look like ceanothus velutinus. The leaves were in clumps arranged in a somewhat semi-circular pattern. I'm surprised no one has mentioned the putrid stench of decay you can frequently smell in avalanche meadows. Or is this only about good aromas?

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lookout bob
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PostMon Oct 01, 2018 2:06 pm 
skunk cabbage... cool.gif

"Altitude is its own reward" John Jerome ( from "On Mountains")
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BigBrunyon
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PostMon Oct 01, 2018 2:54 pm 
I was up there, big raging fire. Some them logs kept smelling like mexican food! Whats the deal with that!

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fyodorova
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fyodorova
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PostTue Oct 02, 2018 12:15 pm 
lookout bob wrote:
skunk cabbage... cool.gif
This really is one of my favorite smells. Growing up in Southeast Alaska, the smell of skunk cabbage in the spring was a sign that summer vacation was coming soon.

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wolffie
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wolffie
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PostTue Oct 02, 2018 5:31 pm 
Nothing like the aroma of a wet corgi as he gradually warms me up in my wet sleeping bag. The familiar snurzzling in my ear, mixed with the incessant tinnitus that I never notice, as he quickly warms me up and I stop shivering. It's almost worth the dogbreath. I know he is snidely thinking, "And you think I smell bad....?!" but he's too polite to say anything.

Some people have better things to do with their lives than walking the dog. Some don't.
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