I will take an Ipod with me on rare occasions so I can listen to music in the evening. I find that I take it with me it less and less as time goes by. I have never used it when hiking though; too distracting to say the least.

Around here, I come across a lot of younger, mostly day hikers who are plugged into their music players. They appear to be totally oblivious to their surroundings and appear to be rather ill-prepared for any kind of hike (flip-flops and halter tops). And, because they can't hear you behind them, they can be rather difficult to pass. I actually had to tap one MP-3'ed young woman on the shoulder to get her attention. I scared the stuffing out of her in doing so and then, of course, she got mad at me for scaring her.