Places you thought were really wild but were not.

H

heresay1

Joined
Jul 27, 2006
Messages
321
I thought of this topic after reflecting on a past trip to the Grand Canyon (Hava Supai campgrounds). I went there thinking it was a large and wild place.

I had a great time there but realized the place was not so "wild." There was a hotel, pit toilet, cafe, and mini mart within walking distance of camp. There was also about a hundred other campers all crammed in the same area. Of the two blades I brought along (CRKT Kasper companion fixed blade and SAK Tinkerer) I ended up using my SAK but only for cutting tomatoes and opening up Mountain House food packs. It was like car camping without the car.

Have any of you been to places were you thought your self reliance skills and gear would be put into practice? Only to discover that you were better off just bringing your credit cart and suitcase?
 
It is an interesting world we live in where life is so easy that we strive to make it harder, and get frustrated when we fail to make it difficult enough;)

I know what you mean.
 
unit said:
It is an interesting world we live in where life is so easy that we strive to make it harder, and get frustrated when we fail to make it difficult enough;)

I know what you mean.
Click to expand...

Just to get off the city streets, when I lived in New York, I would go to a wooded area at the northern edge of the city, Van Cortlandt Park.

Took the train up and walked through the woods, sat around in the bird sanctuary area, stopped off at the golf course (!) house and had a burger. :)

The walk was great, rough ground, creek, hills, and birds and beasts. But I could still hear the traffic not far away.

There's always something to do, but the wild West it ain't!
 
I do hate wandering off the trail, going in the same direction for an hour, busting through brush and briars, finding a stream and following it, squatting down to watch the cascading water and thinking "noone else ever sees this"...just in time to see a freaking Powerade bottle in the bushes:mad:
 
I was deer hunting in California with a friend who was local. I thought we were out in the desert. We came over a ridge and walked into a luzury hotel/spa with several 100 families there. The parking lot looked like DisneyLand. What a let down.
 
It's horrible here. The Smokies used to be pretty wild, and quite hillbilly. Paradise. Seems like now, when something cool is "discovered" by a magazine, or tv show, the move in the bull dozers, cut out a parking lot, put a sidewalk in, and make it so easy to get to some of the spots I remember being "wild".

The population here is has grow astronomically over the last few years. I keep thinking of a song, "paved paradise, and put a parking lot. Took all the trees and put them in a tree museum".

Wild East, it ain't.

Moose
 
Well, I live in Idaho... there are still plenty of places I've been that feel "wild". I guess I should count myself lucky, there are some amazing forests, mountain lakes and streams, and some great desert as well. Word is getting out though, and I'm sure that will change for the next generation as the population grows. :(
 
Unfortunately, there are very few places left in the western world, that can be classified as true wilderness.

Usually, i do a lot of research on an area im about to visit....Checking out the spot on Google Maps, reading other peoples desription, studying a paper-map, etc. That way i know what to expect.
 
moosez45 said:
It's horrible here. The Smokies used to be pretty wild, and quite hillbilly. Paradise. Seems like now, when something cool is "discovered" by a magazine, or tv show, the move in the bull dozers, cut out a parking lot, put a sidewalk in, and make it so easy to get to some of the spots I remember being "wild".

The population here is has grow astronomically over the last few years. I keep thinking of a song, "paved paradise, and put a parking lot. Took all the trees and put them in a tree museum".

Wild East, it ain't.

Moose
Click to expand...

I know what you mean. My two kids and I went down to the Asheville, NC area last summer, to check out a possible place to retire to in a couple of years. I did a recon of the area, traveling about an hour radius around Asheville. Here I am thinking that I'm going to the Blue Ridge Mts. expecting a nice "wilderness" area to retire to. Surprise....a whole vast area surrounding Asheville is "residential" in nature.
I spoke to a few realtors in the area. I stated that I want to live in a place that if I want to pop a deer out of the bathroom window, I don't want to hear any complaints from anyone. They all stated in effect that "...Ooooh, shooting guns....hmmmm. You better have a talk with your neighbors about that."
I was like, "Wait a minute. I'm moving down here to the Blue Ridge Mts., and I have to ask permission from my neighbors about shooting a few rounds off on my property!?"
What the heck?
Anybody have any recommendations?
- Thanks!
 
Last edited:
"I was like, "Wait a minute. I'm moving down here to the Blue Ridge Mts., and I have to ask permission from my neighbors about shooting a few rounds off on my property!?"
What the heck?
Anybody have any recommendations?"

montana
 
sadiejane said:
"I was like, "Wait a minute. I'm moving down here to the Blue Ridge Mts., and I have to ask permission from my neighbors about shooting a few rounds off on my property!?"
What the heck?
Anybody have any recommendations?"

montana
Click to expand...

Thank you for the reply. Any specific areas you'd recommend?
 
Montana. There are still some areas there from what I hear that are pretty rough. true there's almost nowhere anymore that you can't drive somewhere civilized, but there are places where there aren't comforts. Sadly I too have found often you think you're where hardly anybody has ever been,t hen a guy shows up on an ATV.

Red
 
I've never really had a problem with that (tourist trap campsites). One good thing about being Southeastern Kentuckian: the fear that a lot of city dwelling idiots have of us. Not to mention the mountains keep out the riff-raff. It takes work to move in here (most places are generational homes), so it's not like a yuppie influx comes any further south than Lexington. We have a few places that are kind of urban like: Pikeville, Prestonsburg, and Paintsville. But, for the most part, we're all still pretty separated.

Downside? The economy blows. You're either a nurse, lawyer (ambulance chaser type), state police, coal miner, truck driver or school teacher. Mom and pop shops don't do to well, especially if they're too much higher than Walmart (The national talking heads tell us we're poor...I haven't seen it yet). We do have a prescription pill problem in some areas, but it's not like everybody is pilled slick outta their mind and heavily armed.

Want yourself a wild, quiet place to sleep in the dirt and eat bugs? Come here, park your car on the side of the road; pick a direction and start walking. Within three hours you won't hear anything but birds.

As a matter of fact, I plan on spending a couple days in the hills next week if the weather allows.
 
When we did the float trip in Maine last year, there we a few little rivers we followed that gave the feeling that you were deep in the forest and may have been the only person to see this.



They would open up to what appeared to be a hidden gem of a lake that had been untouched by civilization.

PICT0286.jpg



PICT0282.jpg



But the reality of it was that the river was so clear you can see the beer bottles and cans 7' below you... :(
 
Not too many untouched areas left anymore. I find garbage, sometimes very old garbage, in the strangest places. Deep in the backcountry, all alone, no traffic to be heard, and BAM! Around the bend is a junked out old car with no roads leading in or out. Man has really done a number on the land. However I believe that places can be truely wild without being untouched by man. You can still get ate by a bear 1 mile from a gas station. Does that make it a poser bear? Not to me.....lol
 
Thats no joke.....:thumbup: A mile can surely feel like 10 in some terrain. Thickets, thorns, hills, rocks, draws, mud....Gotta work for the good stuff. :cool:
 
I have lived both in Arizona and Wyoming and can report that there were still "wild" areas in both states in the mid 80's. I'm back in NC now and know for a fact there are still wild places here also...

Gene
 
tonym said:
When we did the float trip in Maine last year, there we a few little rivers we followed that gave the feeling that you were deep in the forest and may have been the only person to see this.



They would open up to what appeared to be a hidden gem of a lake that had been untouched by civilization.

PICT0286.jpg



PICT0282.jpg



But the reality of it was that the river was so clear you can see the beer bottles and cans 7' below you... :(
Click to expand...

Wow, what river is that first one?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top