If someone shows up at a trailhead and says “Imma run around this loop and try really hard”, then their experience will be different from listening to crickets chirp, but no less legitimate - they will feel their body moving, their lungs burning, their heart pounding. The wind on their face and their sweat on their skin. And they will finish with a visceral experience of being in that particular place, doing that particular thing, at that particular time. But importantly, they were able to have that experience because they set the goal “run around the loop”.
Yes and you just described a totally internal experience that relies little on the details of the outside environment other than the burden and challenge it places on the body.
I am not bashing this type of pursuit I am saying it is fundamentally selfish and is a different pursuit than trying to actually connect with, observe and know nature by listening instead of pressing your body to its physical limit just to prove you can and get those sweet exercise drug chemicals going in your brain.
The person who spends time listening to crickets chirp will walk away with an externally rich memory of all the wildlife they listened to carefully, all of the rhythms of the forest and the unique creatures and events they happened to catch by being slow and quiet. The person who spent the entire time running will primarily remember the experience of running, the details of the external are just snapshots and set dressing to theme the run in their memories.