Let's assume you backpack regularly - i.e. at least one or two good trips a year, normally..

And let's call this for whatever you would consider your "formative years"

as for how big "large" or "small" town needs to be - use your judgement based on what you think it felt like.

Define small town. The "under 1 million" catagory seems quite large for a city of 100,000. And what about metropolitan areas - you could live in a "town" of 40,000 in a packed metropolitan area of 2 million and it would be more like a big city than small town.

Sorry -I meant large town not small town. What is the cut-off between city "less than 1 million" and large town?

The over a million today and under a million today is somewhat arbitrary. I will leave it to the voter as to the definition of "large" and "small" town as to how they feel the place was or felt...

To put it in perspective, I spent my formative years in edmonton, which is not actually over a million today although the metro-are is.. so I voted large city..

although I also spent many summers on a ranch in central valley california about 20 minutes from the sequoia park gate. (look up ivanhoe california )

Which I suppose means I guess my formative years were spent mostly Here

but importantly Here

and Here

Grew up in this town of 1,500, back then, (still here but now 47,000) farms, ponds, creeks, livestock, hunting, fishing and lots of "spur of the moment camping". We felt "remote", but Dallas was only 14 miles away.
South of us was nothing but farmland. I could ride my mini-bike/dirtbike for miles without ever touching a road.
We're now a big city and it feels like it, which I don't particularly enjoy. If I didn't have a nature preserve for a backyard, I'd move on.
The early years, mom and dad, shaped my love and "comfort level" for the outdoors, for which I feel blessed.

Grew up in Newark, New Jersey. Well actually Irvington, but it is technically part of the Newark city sprawl. Then the Jersey shore during my teen years. Then grew a love for nature and wanted to be surrounded by it. So I now live and go to college in a small rural town in down east Maine with a population less than 2k. There is more moose, deer, and coyotes than people - gotta love that.

I think my love for nature stems from being from a big city and then Manhattans insane sprawl. Seeing all the garbage along the Garden State Parkway and I-95 and, well, everywhere really. Plastic bags in trees and McDonald's wrappers stuck on fences and bushes and such. I realized how badly humans are messing up the planet and it sparked the activist in me. Even though as a child growing up in the hood (literally a poop-shoot hole) and not having a backyard and outside play time was restricted to a park after my parents worked and before sunset. It molded me, and I am thankful I was exposed to the big inner city life.

LIke a lot of surveys, this one has some real methodological issues. My family moved every five years or so, and each time it was to a differnt kind of environment. How to answer that?

Seems like the original survey was designed to prove a point...and it doesn´t. But then, I design surveys as part of my job, and I´ve never designed one that didn´t leave at least one question unanswered...because we didn´t see it coming!

Do I have to feel grown up to answer the question? Where did I grow up? I guess from the backpack point of view, in the Sierras around Lake Tahoe.
Jim

Small university town (15,000 at the time) in the midst of cowboy country. OK, it was the only university in Wyoming (a state still so small of population that it still has only one representative in Congress), the town was Laramie. EDIT, later: The U. of Wyoming athletic teams are, of course, the "Cowboys." Starting thirty miles west of town, you could start out and end up halfway down Colorado and come back again. We did this with the horses (6-7 weeks' trip) every summer. It's not something I'd want to do with horses now, but it certainly would make a feasible backpack as long as you don't mind some road walking. In fact, about 2/3 of our trip most years was on what is now the Continental Divide Trail.

I thought about a category of "I was a military brat / moved constantly" but thought of it after posting it and the board won't let me edit the silly thing

Objection, Your Honor! You do have to grow old, you don't have to grow up....

I was a military brat during WWII, but basically grew up in a large city (big "D.") However, I had a lot of very fine experiences on vacations - not backpacking, but fishing. However, it prepped me for the wonderful morning when I got off the train in Tucson and saw --Mountains!

Further comment. You need a good mathematician to handle the data you are collecting. Know anyone contemplating grad school?

It's interesting reading this because as I was growing up I constantly tried to get back to the woods. The people that raised my Grandmother after her mother died at a young age had a small farm. I went there as much as I could every summer and every weekend. When we moved to Virginia I still traveled bac to Ohio to go there. And even now I went back to rural life. I bought 60 acres and enjoy the space. Backpacking now is my way to get away from everything, my business that has taken over my life and all the responsibilities of maintaining my land. I have already met a great bunch of people and hope to meet many more.

Good poll I love to se a good poll. let it be known though the place i grew up was a small town. I cant help it That it is now a large city. <And im fairly young

I grew up in a small town in the North-West of England; population is perhaps a thousand or so. I backpacked all over Western and Eastern Europe as well as parts of the Middle East and Asia.

I moved to Denver in 2000 and have spent the past decade hiking, backpacking and climbing the mountain ranges here in Colorado. I have since completed the CT and CDT, as well as various other "acheiverments" such as the Triple By-pass and the Four-Pass Loop.

Unfortunately my knowledge of other states is limited.

So the answer for me is two-fold. I originally grow up in a small town, but now I live in a big city.

I grew up in a more or less "one million pop. city".
Escaped every week end for long walks in the countryside, and holidays to the mountains, with family.
Desperately "hoped" for camping trips, but not until I was 14 or 15.
Discovered serious hiking at that age, and the costal scenery too. Killed the attraction for mountains, in consequence !
Then discovered serious travelling, and the added bonus of local hikes and "adventure".
Out of that, I remain fiercely an urban dweller!

I grew up in several medium-sized cities: Pasadena and San Bernardino in California and Bellevue, Washington. Since all of these were near major metropolitan ceners (Los Angeles and Seattle) I opted for the large city category. Once I started working, I have tried to either live in rural areas or in medium sized towns; not always successfully. My work took me to University towns: Seattle, WA, Corvallis, OR, Flagstaff, AZ, Logan, UT and Fort Collins, Colorado. When I worked in Seattle I commuted from Snohomish which at that time was rural. All the other towns were smallish to medium sized (<100,000 to about 150,000. Since I retired I have lived in rural Washington and in rural Arizona. When I was growing up, my parents and I spent most of our free time camping, fishing and backpacking. That and the Boy Scouts developed my love of the outdoors.

My small town, although we lived 25 miles from "town", had a HS graduating class of 10 when I graduated in NV. My mom went to a one room school in MN. That schoolhouse is now a garage, across the road from where it was on my grandparents farm. My grandparents bought it and my cousin has since made it into a garage on the remaining small acreage that was part of the farm that got sold off after my grandfather passed away.

I grew up in middle of Rockford, Illinois. It's the second largest city in the State, about 90 miles west of Chicago. My walk to school each morning looked (and felt) like the opening scene in the movie "Joe and the Volcano". I left Rockford in 1973 when I was fourteen.

Around that time Rockford was rated last of the 300 largest U.S. cities to live in. It also had the distinction of having the highest murder per capita rate in the U.S.

My love for hiking was not borne from family tradition. We never went hiking or camping. I won't say it's got nothing to do with where I grew up though...

I remember reading a story about the Sequoias in 3rd grade, and wondering if, then doubting that, I'd ever get to see them. I can say with some certainty that it was a profound moment that led me to an understanding of my situation, and even those around me.

It led me to questioning why we lived in Rockford. It led to me grabbing the first chance I had to leave Rockford, which got me to the Sequoias

Eventually, it led me to understanding I could live wherever I wanted. It was easy figuring out that I didn't want to live in the city, but not as easy figuring where to go. A good friend gave me some great advice and a formula for figuring that out.

Backpacking has a lot to do with why I'm here in the Ozarks, that is for sure

I grew up in Portland, Oregon. It is hard to say whether it is over 1 million now or not, as that would depend on how far into the suburbs you want to extend the "city". Within the actual city limits it is around 500,000.

The big key for me becoming a backpacker was that my parents were teachers and we always took camping trips in the summer. When we camped, we always hiked. It was the cheapest way to get out of town. I loved camping and hiking from almost as soon as I could walk and talk.

The next biggest key was living in Oregon as a teenager when the first surge of the big backpacking wave broke in about 1970. I became an REI member with a number just over 170,000. At the time it seemed to me like I was jumping the bandwagon pretty late, with more than 150,000 people ahead of me.

My parents only car camped - now granted we were pretty poor, so it was free car camping (drive the car as far out into some out of the way state forest and camp there - I was traumatized as a small child that there wasn't any bathroom facilities.)

However, I think the big reason I like to hike and camp was my Grandma's and my aunt's. Both just set me free year around - I only came in when I got hungry. So I was building forts, dams, whatever by myself for days in a row (I had to come in at night, though in the summer at the aunt's I could sleep in the tent.) Even at my dads I would hike out back, and bicycle around the country-side until I had to hurry back for dinner.

I know of few people (in person) in the lower 48 who had that kind of freedom - more common up here, because what else are the kids gonna do?

Heather (born in Michigan (troll))

My folks lived in Sonora. I grew up in Yosemite and on Sonora Pass. School was just a necessary evil, and something to do between snowfall and snowmelt. (the folks weren't really snow lovers.)

I grew up in Covina, Calif. , back when there were still vacant fields and creative kids running the streets for lack of indoor entertainment. Don't know if you could have considered it a small town back then due to it's proximity to LA. , but I guess you could consider us on the outskirts. Our home was faceing the San Gabriel Mountains so we usually had a great view unless the smog had its way. My Dad had to support us nine kids on an eighth grade education which meant he took no time for vacations or camping. I can only remember the 2 of us fishing together only once, but I don't blame him one bit cause the other 8 were a real handful. I Love you Dad & Mom. My older brother seem to have all the fun in the outdoor department and occasionally took me fishing. He ended up in the Airforce somewhere over in Turkey so I ended up making my own adventures. I ran away to the mountains once, but after I ate my p&j sand I came back, about 4 hours later. I would sometimes take the bus for a quarter over to San Dimas and hike a mile or so to the Puddingstone resivoir to fish before I needed a license. Of course I was only about 9 and had to have my older sister tag along. Then I was able to take my younger sister until we had to hike to a better fishing spot halfway around the lake, I think she got discouraged. When I was 16 is when it really started. My older Brother took me on my first week long backpacking trip in the High Sierra's. I can still remember being just totally blown away on how vast everything was up there at 10,000 ft. Since then I've usually been able to take a trip at least one week a year in the Sierra's and it's something I hope I am able to do for the rest of my life..Dang, talk about spilling my guts.

that's a good vote, and it seems most of the friends here are coming from big cities~

I am too. Call it "Street Smarts" if you will, but growing up in the inner city instills a set of social skills that you do not get in the suburbs or rural areas. It's a hard thing to describe, but easy to recognize

I grew up in Birmingham England, the second largest city there. We hiked a lot on holiday, likely because my parents didn’t own a car and walking was a cheap and enjoyable pastime. Moved to Edmonton Alberta Canada at the age of 13. My hiking there consisted of long walks with my dog, nothing like I do today. The past 32 years I have lived in Kamloops BC, population of about 85,000. Lots of great hiking in these parts and so hiking is once again my passion.

Howie

Nice to meet a fellow expat

Very true. But you and I understand it. Its funny, no matter where I go in the USA, whenever I travel people always pinpoint very easily where I am from. Accent, personality, sweet & sexy Italian looks. LOL! IDK something about a city that molds a personality. City dwellers as easy going (notice the stress on easy going) like you and I, we can get along with people in any demographic...where as if you take someone who grew up in a rural area most of them will have trouble feeling comfortable in a big city. At least that is my experience whenever I have my rural Maine friends visit me in NJ or we go to Portland or something. ::shrugs::

I grew up on a farm in western Illinois. Our 160 acres was a combination of corn and bean fields, pasture, and woods. I always enjoyed walking the cow paths through the woods and pastures and did that more than anyone else in my family. There is virtually no public land in the area, and backpacking and camping never occurred to me back then. We had a big canvas tent that we set up in the yard about once a year, but I never slept in it overnight. After I moved to St. Louis, I happened to see a guidebook about area trails in a bookstore. The book mostly covered local parks and even city neighborhoods, but I found myself immediately gravitating to the longer and rougher trails. Then bought more guidebooks and did internet research to find more places to hike. I finally decided to start backpacking because of one-way trails that I could not hike in one day.

I think being on the farm had a lot to do with my enjoyment of walking/hiking. I remember as a kid seeing farms where the house and yard were completely surrounded by corn and bean fields, and thinking I would not want to live there with no nearby woods to walk in. I still think about that when I see those farms.

My hometown was around 5,000 inhabitants in n. California, in a valley surrounded by open space (oak, pine, and fir forests) and hills. I was used to seeing the open space and did enjoy the beauty of it. To me that's what the world looked like (not homes as far as the eye could see). We didn't have a family culture of hiking or backpacking, but we did camp out at Lassen once when I was small, which I really enjoyed, and spent a couple weeks in a cabin at Donner Lake where according to my sister we walked on trails with Dad, though I have no recollection of that. I did play outdoors and loved exploring, especially around the creeks near my house. I had cousins I would stay with on their ranch each summer, and experienced that life too. My high school band teacher had been a backpacker since the 1930's, and he was probably my inspiration for backpacking though I didn't actually do it for another 15 years after high school (did do dayhiking once I left home, though). When I went off to college I ended up in the SF East Bay area, where I still live, so I am comfortable in rural and city both.

slowfoot,

Another Illinois farmer here. The family farm was in central Illinois in a big bend of the Sangamon River. Abe Lincoln navigated barges through the family farm. Part of the farm was flat farmland, but the woods near the river was fairly remote. No bridges so no traffic on the access road, and since most was flood plain there were no permanent houses.

Spent most of my free time on the river in my jon boat. Started solo camping before I had a driver's license.

Adirondack region of New York.

The Dalles Or. Pop approx 12,000. 20 Miles east of Hood River

Born in Richland, Wa (Tri-Cities), spent my younger days hiking all over the Pacific northwest from N. California through Oregon and Washington with the Boy Scouts. I used to hike alot in the desert near my home in Richland when i was a kid. My teenage years were spent in Upstate N.Y, hiking the Adirondacks. Time spent in Ga,too. Now i am back where i belong in Oregon

BF

I grew up in Northwest Iowa, a small town with not much around it besides farms. So I grew up following creek bottoms flowing around town. I would riding my bike 4 miles to the nearest fishing hole outside of the next town. I figured out hiking could lead to some of the most peaceful fishing you could find.

Missoula Montana. My dad drug me all over that state hunting, fishing, camping.

I was a military brat growing up everywhere USA. Then I joined the military and raised my own brats. Still moving after the military, but now settled down in the state I was born. Good ole Tennessee.

My Dad and Mom were hikers and still are. My whole family and their families all hike and camp.

I average a backpack by weekly.

My dad's job necessitated a large city over a million. We moved to 5 large cities before I got married. That is why I hate cities and love backpacking and getting as far away from people as possible.

Grew up in a small coal mining town in West Virginia in the 50's and 60's. The surrounding area was all wooded hills dotted with oil rigs. As a kid the backpack carried an Army surplus pup tent, coupla blankets, baloney sandwichs, and lotsa candy bars. Those were the good ol days when all the joints worked, no aches and pains.

Technically I grew up in various small cities...that were part of Los Angeles or Orange County. Now these merge into a SuperCity that extends to the coast from the Transverse Ranges (Big Bear, Arrowhead, ect.) to Camp Pendleton. Orange County used to be filled with orange groves; now its filled with houses. Lots of food was grown in LA back then too. Open fields and draws that were over grown with vegetation existed in many areas. At one house, people down the street raised chickens, goats and rabbits, and behind us were horses. The old lady who own the horses would occasionally catch us stealing her pomagranites and shoot at us with a rock salt load in her shot gun. I collected giant turnips and kohlrobi to eat at home along with all sorts of berries. Not at all what the area is like now.

sk

haha that sounds like fun skcreidc

Castro Valley in the middle of the greater San Francisco-Oakland metropolis area. If you haven't seen it, think of it as "Leave It To Beaver" suburbia. We'd all ride our banana seat Sting-Ray bikes to after-school Cub Scout meetings. Sigh.

I was also a military brat and traveled from state to state. We moved from Eglin A.F. base Florda to Ankorage, Alaska. Talking about culture shock. Later in my father's carreer we moved to middle Tennessee and have mostly lived here ever since. About three hours from the south end of the AT near Fontana Lake.

Grew up in several small towns, but all in the greater Philadelphia area, out in the 'burbs to varying degrees or in South Jersey. The final stop was a very small town, then surrounded by cornfields and a few suburban developments, 25 years later it's totally built up with subdivisions and office parks. Due to a quirk in how the school districts were laid out, I graduated in a high school class of almost 1000. (Yeah, it was a biiiig school district, with one high school for many feeder schools.) Very limited outdoor exposure when I was a kid -- the occasional fishing trip to a local state park. Got my first real outdoor exposure in Army basic training, then kept it up when I got out.

just curious kbennet, where at (NJ)? Did a lot of vacationing in Wildwood as a kid. Every year at Le Boot right at the beginning of the boardwalk. Love that place. Can't wait to take my future family there.

I spent 3 years in Anahiem and Stanton CA. Then we moved to Texas.

I grew up in northern Arizona before very many people lived here. We had a lot more freedom as kids than children seem to have these days. Freedom to wander in the woods, desert and canyons. For several years (1952 to 1959) my folks had the park concession at Canyon DeChelly (pronounced deshay)national monument. To get there one drove 40 miles on dirt roads. I went to a one room school with all the grades together and a single teacher. There was less than 500 population I would think.

My older sister and I rode horses in the canyon and played in the Indian ruins. For a couple of summers I lived in my tree house which I had built in a huge cottonwood tree. The ranger's daughter and I spruced up an overhang shelter about a quarter mile from home and spent several summer nights there.

I was married and had three children before I started backpacking but I have always been comfortable fooling around outside--my favorite place Mary

You were fortunate to grow up on one of the world's most fantastic places. I worked there from 1969 to about 1974, primarily excavating Antelope House and messing around in the Canyon on weekends.

Do you remember Chauncey Neboyia? He was my dig foreman at Antelope House. The last time I was at the Canyon was for his funeral, but I want to get back and see some more of the back country.

Nope--I did not know your friend. You probably knew the Lafont family--they bought the place from my mother after my father died--at 38. In those days banks did not like to loan to women so they wanted their money fast and so it was sold.

so the final result is the most people come from big/small cities ~ that's interesting, I have predicted 95% come from big city~

Ya know since I moved out of the big cities and suburban sprawl to the country, I notice most of those people I talk to in the country really don;t realize what they have around them. Where as the people from cities and suburbia cherish it. They call Maine a vacation land because most of us city folks swarm the woods to get away from the city. Where as the people from Maine leave the country to find jobs in the city and cant wait to get out. Its all backwards lol.