Wilderness Travellers

[DrivebyTrucker]

Doc we saw what you did to Pierre the rat you murderer That was an endangered stuffed animal species. PETSA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Stuffed Animals) has been alerted to your atrocities Here is the link http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=580500 You know we have to hang out when I get around to visiting Canada. I'm thinking we will less strange setting up traps for stuffed animals if I am dressed as Jack Sparrow 8)

 

[dougo83]

Neither. I despise the NRA mainly because of the bunch of inbred backwoods morons I see in their ranks down here, especially at the gun shows. However, I am an avid hunter and fisher and spend a great deal of time learning more about the sports and trying my best to pass on the skills I gain. I also try to use everything I can when I do something like bag a deer. I will use all the meat I can trim off, the bones I usually grind up with the guts and use it for chum when I go fishing. I donate the hide to whatever taxidermist or other craftsman wants it and I use the antlers as handy little coat and gun racks for the cabin/house.

I also think the Sierra Club is obnoxious and should go back to Starbucks and leave the rest of us alone. However, I like to hike as gently as possible. I am always pissed when I take a trail and find trash so I regularly carry in extra trash bags to pick up the stuff other a-holes leave behind. I volunteer to pick up all the trash I can on my days off near my home. I also recycle when I can. I usually just stockpile recyclables until I go home and give it to my 10-yr old brother who gets rewarded for turning it in at school. I also criticize trophy hunters. I cannot see the value in killing something just to kill. That is how they strike me.

I am a simple country boy who has a knack for the outdoors. Nothing more, nothing less.

 

[DOC-CANADA]

Doc we saw what you did to Pierre the rat you murderer That was an endangered stuffed animal species. PETSA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Stuffed Animals) has been alerted to your atrocities Here is the link http://www.bladeforums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=580500 You know we have to hang out when I get around to visiting Canada. I'm thinking we will less strange setting up traps for stuffed animals if I am dressed as Jack Sparrow 8)

WTH are you talking about? Pierre is only a bit bruised. He's one tough little rat.

This 'Jack Sparrow' thing has got me worried, though. I haven't posted my address, have I?

Doc

 

[Kyp Degal]

Quick, Doc, hide the rum!

 

[hollowdweller]

Petition the government to allow motorized and mechanical vehicles into our wilderness and National parks and the benefits would far out weigh the minimal damage. .

Not for me. In my mind there is only so much Wilderness. One of the reasons for wilderness is to get away from the trappings of modern society and a lot of people.

Most people are too lazy to hike into a wilderness so that cuts down on the use and increases solitude for those who are tough enough to hike in.

I would absolutely hate to be hanging out in the wilderness and then have a bunch of 4 wheelers come by. I live in the country and get plenty of that at home. Also I find that the more lazy people you let into an area, the more garbage and stuff they leave.

For instance in some of the back country areas I hike in I find garbage left by bike and horse riders. You'd think that the easier it is for one to carry things in the easier to carry it out. But I have not found it to be so.

We have a huge ATV trail here in WV the Hatfield McCoy trail. They have a place. But at least in my mind motorized vehicles have no place in the wilderness.:thumbup:

 

[Moodino]

I'm with Hollowdweller. Leave No Trace!:thumbup:

Not for me. In my mind there is only so much Wilderness. One of the reasons for wilderness is to get away from the trappings of modern society and a lot of people.

Most people are too lazy to hike into a wilderness so that cuts down on the use and increases solitude for those who are tough enough to hike in.

I would absolutely hate to be hanging out in the wilderness and then have a bunch of 4 wheelers come by. I live in the country and get plenty of that at home. Also I find that the more lazy people you let into an area, the more garbage and stuff they leave.

For instance in some of the back country areas I hike in I find garbage left by bike and horse riders. You'd think that the easier it is for one to carry things in the easier to carry it out. But I have not found it to be so.

We have a huge ATV trail here in WV the Hatfield McCoy trail. They have a place. But at least in my mind motorized vehicles have no place in the wilderness.:thumbup:

 

[DrivebyTrucker]

I'm with Hollowdweller. Leave No Trace!:thumbup:

Of course roads are not allowed into wilderness areas. So there is no car camping. And no logging so it's all old growth. And for hunters willing to walk there is plenty of game to be found. Just unspoiled beauty at it's finest. I wouldn't want to destroy that by building roads. I imagine it would be strange to be walking through a pristine Wilderness area only to move aside as a horn beeps and a large family of ten on ATZ's goes whizzing by me all dressed in their Walmart Camo. Not hunters either; just dad thought they would look cool if they were all dressed the same. And I do believe a family of ten on ATZ's would wreck more havoc on a camp ground then a group of ten on foot. I don't know if you have been to Yellowstone NP before; but the traffic jams in Spring in Fall are worse then rush hour in Los Angeles In the summer time it is a nightmare. People parking their cars on the road to get out and snap a photo of a wandering Bison near the side of the road. The ten mile drive from Old Faithful back to your campsite could take an hour or more.

But.......I still believe we should open up our protected lands. Limiting our use of natural resources limits our National interest. There is still much land in America that can be protected as a National Park or Wilderness area. And not all of it is in the Great West. But the West still has much potential so I will use that as an example. Utah. That state has so much potential it's ridiculous. Arches, Moab, and Zion NP are just the tip of the ice berg of what could be protected there. And those parks amazing with some of the best Canyon hiking in the World. But there isn't enough interest in preserving more lands in that state. Statistics show the majority of American's now live in large cities. Country boy can't survive Hank Jr. Overweight and far removed from nature many American's could hardly care less about or National Parks and Wilderness Area's. Many of us, myself included, prefer to use National Forest. There just more accessible to the average American family. There is more you can do in National Forest then what is allowed in Wilderness and National Parks. So really the protection of our land and resources lies more in the hands of average American's then with the Sierra Club and NRA. Allowing Motorized ATV's, Dirt Bikes, Snow Mobiles, etc, would make these lands accessible and fun for everyone. Well more people at least

 

[hollowdweller]

A year or so ago the ranger made a decision to open both ends of the Cranberry River Road, which is a driveable road but gated off.

He did it for 1 day so old people and people who hadn't been there since you COULD drive back in there could see it again.

It wasn't widely announced so here were these people who had taken off work to go there and suddenly all these cars go thru.

People had a shit fit. And I'm not talking tree hugger but fishermen and folks who appreciate the lack of vehicles.

I personally would have been OK with it as long as they announced it in advance but at least here the public opposition was overwhelming.

 

[mtnfolk mike]

I dont like labels. I am an enthusiast of all things outside. Kayaking, mtn biking, hunting, hiking, fishing, camping, skeet shootin and archery.

Dunno what catagory that makes me. Im me.:thumbup:

i agree with you J...:thumbup: i just like to be outside as much as possible...

i do a little hunting here and there, but i use a longbow... i only own one gun...

and lets not start an NRA or sierra club bashing thread... both are highly recognized, reputable companies...

 

[Mentor]

One of the reasons I call this subforum home is that it brings together people from a variety of backgrounds who share a love of the outdoors. Some are hunters; some are anglers, hikers, mountain-climbers, mountain-bikers, canoeists, etc. etc. There is almost never a sense of animosity directed from one 'group' towards another (topics such as blade thickness and the relative merits of moras notwithstanding).

So, in my opinion, forget the labels. Enjoy the common ground - especially since that common ground is the wilderness.

- Mike

 

[mtnfolk mike]

One of the reasons I call this subforum home is that it brings together people from a variety of backgrounds who share a love of the outdoors. Some are hunters; some are anglers, hikers, mountain-climbers, mountain-bikers, canoeists, etc. etc. There is almost never a sense of animosity directed from one 'group' towards another (topics such as blade thickness and the relative merits of moras notwithstanding).

So, in my opinion, forget the labels. Enjoy the common ground - especially since that common ground is the wilderness.

- Mike

WELL SAID MIKE...:thumbup:

 

[DOC-CANADA]

Not for me. In my mind there is only so much Wilderness. One of the reasons for wilderness is to get away from the trappings of modern society and a lot of people.

Most people are too lazy to hike into a wilderness so that cuts down on the use and increases solitude for those who are tough enough to hike in.

I would absolutely hate to be hanging out in the wilderness and then have a bunch of 4 wheelers come by. I live in the country and get plenty of that at home. Also I find that the more lazy people you let into an area, the more garbage and stuff they leave.

For instance in some of the back country areas I hike in I find garbage left by bike and horse riders. You'd think that the easier it is for one to carry things in the easier to carry it out. But I have not found it to be so.

We have a huge ATV trail here in WV the Hatfield McCoy trail. They have a place. But at least in my mind motorized vehicles have no place in the wilderness.:thumbup:

I agree with HD 100%.

Doc

 

[akennedy73]

I don't know if the NRA should be strongly associated with hunting - sometimes I think as an organization they are more supportive of the gun industry then the right to hunt. (And don't go flaming me - I'm a strong supporter of the 2nd amendment. I just happen to be suspicious of political organizations - regardless of whether I happen to agree with their cause).

As for hunting, I believe without it there wouldn't be much undeveloped land out there. It is a multi-billion dollar industry and the only significant commercial enterprise that has protected large swathes of natural habitat. Other outdoor industries like skiing and backpacking pale in comparison in terms of the economic incentive to protect land. The fact is people value what they use - find a way for people to use the natural environment in its natural state and they'll choose to protect it. I can't think of a better way than hunting.

As far at the notion of roping off nature and putting it under glass - it's at least 10 thousand years too late for that. There is really no wilderness and hasn't been for many thousands of years. There's a myth that the Americas were a wilderness sparsely populated by Native Americans who tread lightly and lived in harmony with nature. The truth is that the Americas were not a wilderness, it was densely populated before the arrival of the Europeans, and the land was highly managed. The great prairie of the American midwest? Pasture created for grazing massive herds of buffalo. The Amazon rainforest? Ten percent of the trees were planted on purpose by native Americans for agricultural use.

The sooner we dispense with the misguided concept that there is a "wilderness" to protect, the sooner we will find the way to protect the biodiversity necessary to support ourselves and pass on the gift of the outdoors we treasure so much to our children.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200203u/int2002-03-07

Well, that's my .02 cents...

 

[hollowdweller]

Most of the Wilderness in my state was heavily logged in the early part of the 20th century.

Hiking you still find railroad spikes and tracks, zinc buckets etc.

Basically the gov't got a lot of the land in my area that is now designated wilderness because it had been totally trashed by the logging companies, then by unrestricted use and the massive erosion and fire that goes with it. Nobody wanted it. Most of the game had been shot long ago or killed by dogs running loose. All of the timber worth anything was taken. Most of the streams wouldn't support fish due to acid drainage.

So the wilderness designation is not so much to protect some pristine area as to have some land where nature is allowed to call the shots.

For instance Cranberry Wilderness where I go some. When I first started hiking there over 20 years ago I was actually walking on gravel roads a lot over concreted in culverts. There was a lot of glass and old beer bottles and camping stuff that was left over from before they shut the roads off.

It became wilderness in 1983 and I started hiking there in 1984 or 5.

Hiking it now all the bridges are gone, washed out although the culverts are still scattered around. Most of the old garbage is swallowed up except the huge iron hunks from the logging days. The trees are so much larger than they were 20 years ago.

For me it's been real cool to see the area revert to a more primitive state:thumbup:

 

[stingray4540]

See, I'm a little of both. I like guns, hunting, and fishing, but I absolutely hate it when I go to one of my favorite spots and have to pick up beer cans, plastic bags, worm container, plastic hanger(WTF?!), etc. It just makes my blood boil!!!!

I don't mind sharing a camping spot with an avid rock climber, or a family that has been camping all there lives. What I can't stand, is when a bunch of morons from the city come up for one night, and in that one night, leave more shlt than two camping parties did in four nights. They find the most secluded spots, drink there beer, make out, whatever, then when you think you've found one of the best spots that no one knows about you stumble across water bottles, beer cans, etc. It just pisses me off!

In my opinion, let the people come, and encourage the use of God's wilderness, but anyone who litters, or unnecessarily destroys the local landscape should be sodomized and thrown in the lake with concrete shoes.

 

[B Hess]

I despise the NRA mainly because of the bunch of inbred backwoods morons I see in their ranks down here, especially at the gun shows.
QUOTE]


You despise an organization of almost 5 million people because of a few idiots where you live?

 

[hollowdweller]

You despise an organization of almost 5 million people because of a few idiots where you live?

The NRA is one of the most successful grassroots organizations in US History.

They are not a political party so judging them on the environment or other positions of the candidates they endorse is like judging the guy who puts the wheels on a car based on how the engine performs.