I mean, very few people go off into the woods anymore without some way to communicate in case of emergency.
In the mid-80s I’d go off backpacking with friends for a week or ten days, and the only hope we had if we something went terribly wrong was the occasional park ranger, or other hikers. We might run across four or five other people on the trail per day, but some days no one at all. We’d set up camp by a pond and be the only ones there, and probably for miles in any direction. We never thought about it, because there wasn’t the option of taking a GPS, or phone, and we didn’t bother with a radio because we never needed one before, so we just never thought to take one.
It was fine. We had skills, we were prepared, we had each other. We had experience. That’s all we needed.
I suspect that is very rare now. It would be considered foolish. Fewer and fewer people have the experience of being that disconnected anymore.
We all made it out unscathed, after about eight summers of doing it together. We were all in our twenties, and believed we were immortal. I haven’t been in many years, and won’t be going again. It probably IS foolish today with the options available, but still something is lost when we’re never incommunicado anymore.
Being comfortable away from civilization.
I mean, very few people go off into the woods anymore without some way to communicate in case of emergency.
In the mid-80s I’d go off backpacking with friends for a week or ten days, and the only hope we had if we something went terribly wrong was the occasional park ranger, or other hikers. We might run across four or five other people on the trail per day, but some days no one at all. We’d set up camp by a pond and be the only ones there, and probably for miles in any direction. We never thought about it, because there wasn’t the option of taking a GPS, or phone, and we didn’t bother with a radio because we never needed one before, so we just never thought to take one.
It was fine. We had skills, we were prepared, we had each other. We had experience. That’s all we needed.
I suspect that is very rare now. It would be considered foolish. Fewer and fewer people have the experience of being that disconnected anymore.
It’s fun to take mild peril and up the stakes.
I hope you never find out just how much the wilderness doesn’t like humans.
We all made it out unscathed, after about eight summers of doing it together. We were all in our twenties, and believed we were immortal. I haven’t been in many years, and won’t be going again. It probably IS foolish today with the options available, but still something is lost when we’re never incommunicado anymore.