Bugs and Wind and Snakes, Oh, My!
The great outdoors.
Kids don’t remember their best day of television. - Anonymous
I figured by now virtual reality would have made some serious inroads into bringing relief to the Great Outdoors. I was counting on it actually. This is the Ed Abbey-like curmudgeon in me.
A sci-fi novel I read twice called Mother of Storms described how the future it foresaw would be one where we vicariously experience adventure through proxies - other humans “live-streaming” themselves actually doing things like free soloing El Capitan while millions of others “piggy-backed” on the experience without having to break a sweat or risk death or wear super tight, uncomfortable climbing shoes. I suspect this future is coming, but we’re not there yet.
Don’t get me wrong. I want humanity to love and embrace the outdoors and set aside wilderness for future generations and protect wide, open spaces but, when I say ‘leave no trace’, I mean stay at home, so there’s no chance you’ll leave a trace.
There are NIMBYs who don’t want people and business and progress to encroach into their neighborhoods and there are also NIMOPS (Not In My Outdoor Play Space) like me.
Future generations will remember us for the roads we do not build. - Mo Udall
Unfortunately, social media, meteorically fueled by the ubiquity and ease of photo-taking and sharing - thanks to our miraculous mobile devices - coupled with an unseen viral enemy that continues to plague humankind, has sent armies of people into the outdoors. In addition, the ease with which to discover places by perusing the internet has exponentially increased the pressure being put on outdoor spaces.
I knew when I was a Recreation major at Western Washington University that the demand for outdoor recreation would increase into the future but I was only factoring in the world’s ever-expanding population. I presumed that most American’s casual indifference to the messiness of nature - bugs, weather irregularities, poisonous snakes - would moderate the inevitable hordes to come.
For an occurrence to become an adventure it is necessary to recount it. - Jean-Paul Sartre
We bandied the idea of the Information Age around quite a bit in the ‘70s and early ‘80s but no one I ever talked to envisioned where we have arrived today. Videos, photos, information, knowledge, GPS - all at your fingertips. I am reading a breezy travel book my sister-in-law sent me called Nala’s World. It chronicles a Scotsman’s around-the-world cycling odyssey but before he gets out of eastern Europe he has adopted an abandoned roadside kitten he names Nala.
Not much longer after that, he and Nala become internet sensations. One thing leads to another and now I am reading about he and Nala’s exploits.
I bring it up because I am fascinated at how connected he is while pushing a hunk of fabricated metal via pedals more than 25 thousand miles. With the internet and his phone, he finds veterinarians, learns about border crossing rules and makes housing arrangements as he goes. He does his banking, he funds charities from online donations and looks for part-time work. I suppose it would be technically possible for him to livestream video log every step of his journey. The only hassle or stumbling block would be in keeping everything charged and ready.
These enormously expensive little mobile computers we carry around with us are earth-shattering game-changers.
With the pandemic and the safest place to be - with people - being in the great outdoors, the amount of pressure mounting on nature and its guardians (Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, etc) is incalculable. Last year, I noted the parking mayhem at popular trailheads in the Wenatchee Valley. I also took note of the most convenient trailhead that I can walk to from my house - Icicle Ridge Trail - and how from March through late November, or whenever the snow started flying, there was not a single day that I hiked the trail (and I usually do so every other day) where there were less than eight cars in the parking lot.
Another unprecedented thing in an unprecedented year of things.
During a normal, non-pandemic year, there would scarcely be a car midweek. Historically, day hikes have not required permits. Or, if a permit were needed, it was self-issued at the kiosk at the beginning of the trail. Managers of wilderness areas like Alpine Lakes are having to recalibrate that thinking.
Blessed are the curious, for they shall have adventures. - Lovelle Drachman
I am most familiar with river permits. I’m sure requests for dates and permits spiked with the advent of the internet. What used to be an arduous endeavor before the internet became considerably less so when all the various agencies had websites and river and whitewater organizations began aggregating and posting information. Now, a government website, or a website sanctioned by the government, practically makes it one-stop shopping for river permits. I can sign up for the lottery for almost every major Western river in the time it takes for me to brew coffee. Of course I haven’t scored a permit for years because forty million of my closest friends are doing the very same thing.
I was checking out the Devils River in west Texas because I had read an article about it in the Texas Monthly which romanticized it for me. As I was poking about on the internet, I came across a slickly made video containing all the data you needed to secure a permit and included dozens of tips and hints and suggestions regarding everything from Texas riparian laws, what you should bring and who you should call for shuttles and permits. Other than experiencing the Devils River and its environs for myself, nothing was left to the imagination.
All of these conveniences please me. I’m one hundred per cent American after all.
I am also pleased people are taking advantage of our rich natural heritage while doing the right thing during the second coming of the Spanish Flu.
But the Ed Abbey in me is hoping when the pandemic fears subside, assuming there is reason for those fears to subside sometime in the near future, whoever’s working on nanotech, quality, affordable VR gear brings that shit to market and alters the course of history. . . again.
Send all of those Americans with a low tolerance for bugs, unpredictable weather and an unreasonable fear of snakes back inside.
To the intelligent man or woman life is infinitely mysterious. But the stupid have an answer for every question. - Ed Abbey
AAR Kevin O’Brien lured me into watching The Vow on HBOMax - a documentary about the NXIVM cult out of Albany, New York. Three episodes in and I am hooked. I think of it as research into QAnon.
Also, on a related tangent, AAR Cathy Hollingsworth emailed an article comparing the nascent stages of Amway with the rise of Tr*mpism. The author of the article was present during the early stages of the multilevel marketing enterprise. I told her it reminded me of the series starring Kirsten Dunst called Being a God in Central Florida.
I swear kombucha reminds me of the apple cider vinegar, honey and lemon concoctions I used to drink in high school that I read were healthy in the ads in the back of the men’s magazines. - JLM