Fw: [pct-l] Technology on the Trail

[Slyatpct at aol.com (Slyatpct@aol.com)]

In a message dated 1/18/2005 11:57:24 AM Eastern Standard Time, 
tahoe.cat@verizon.net writes:

> >HYOH !!! I know that one   Ground Pounder Bill
> 

Yes that's true, but I also agree with part of what Chuckie has to say. With 
exception of some good hiking tunes from time to time, too much electronic 
technology can spoil a good hike.  Not only that, it will make you stupid, like 
calculators have done to kids.

Sly




> >From: "Chuckie V" <rubberchuckie@yahoo.com>
> >To: "PCT-List" <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
> >Sent: Tuesday, January 18, 2005 8:40 AM
> >Subject: [pct-l] Technology on the Trail
> >
> >
> >>I often wonder how H.D. Thoreau or John Muir or Clinton Clarke would
> have
> >felt if they were alive today about hikers and their need to bring
> >technology into the wilderness with them. I'm not writing of fancy
> clothing
> >or Sil-Nylon shelters but of this craving--this apparent necessity--to
> carry
> >a digital altimeter watch or a GPS unit; a hand-held computer or a
> cellular
> >phone; a radio or a musical device or even a musical instrument. How do we
> >define what a wilderness experience is about? Is it different for
> everyone?
> >Is the PCT a wilderness experience at all? Are we trying to tame the
> >wilderness by bringing as many pieces of civilization out there with us
> that
> >we can? If we're that bored being out there in the first place, should we
> >even be out there?
> >>
> >>All of this (and much more) goes through my head while hiking.
> >>
> >>I also wonder if I'm alone when I feel that I might have been born too
> >late...that I'd have been better off living a couple of centuries ago,
> when
> >technology wasn't the driving force to a society's existence. I hike to
> >leave measured time behind; to depart a world of instant access, where
> >phones, e-mail, cars and airplanes provide instantaneous contact with
> anyone
> >anywhere. It's a step "backwards"; a step away from the planned and
> plotted,
> >overly-organized, domesticated world into the realm of the unknown and
> >unexpected.
> >>
> >>But things are changing. More and more of my outdoor excursions have
> been
> >spoiled by technology: cell phone users barking repeatedly into their
> >phones, "Can you hear me now?" on the tops of mountains or in otherwise
> >silent meadows. I get disappointed when I see someone staring into their
> GPS
> >unit rather than out at the boundless beauty spread directly in front of,
> or
> >below them; I'm not sure, but it seems to me that they're try to quantify
> >what they've just accomplished...to put it all in numerical form.
> >>
> >>I don't know what exactly I'm trying to say, but it seems to me that all
> >this technology has changed the way we interact with nature and has even
> >affected the way we think of the wilderness. While a pair of Gore-Tex
> boots
> >and technologically-advanced clothing enable a hiker to go deeper into the
> >outback, these things don't alter the essence of the trip's meaning. A
> cell
> >phone, on the other hand, transcends the wilderness and puts you right
> back
> >into civilization within a few quick button pushes. Does it matter?
> >>
> >>Call me crazy but it has always bothered me when someone makes a
> telephone
> >call in my surrounding vicinity outdoors. If I can't escape it in the
> >wilderness, where can I? I used to think I was just being overly-sensitive
> >and that I was the only one affected but we've all heard of hikers making
> >such calls to Search and Rescue teams simply because they were tired!
> >Perhaps saddest of all is that you and I are footing the bill while these
> >poor SAR squads risk their own necks to search for these tired trekkers!
> Are
> >these people who should venture that far out to begin with?
> >>
> >>And what of radios or today's latest technology, MP3 players? I've
> always
> >thought that the trickling of water was the one of the most soothing
> sounds
> >our planet has to offer. What about a hawk's screech echoing off a
> canyon's
> >wall or simply the sound of your own footsteps breaking through a thin
> layer
> >of freshly fallen snow?  Nature's very silence is perhaps the best
> symphony
> >going. And if nature cannot entertain you, and you cannot entertain
> yourself
> >out there, do you belong? Am I just being old-fashioned? If it's
> mini-discs
> >and MP3 players now; what will it be in the future? "Virtual" wilderness
> >videos? Enclosed, temperature-controlled, music-pumped mono-rails built to
> >comfortably travel through all scenic trails?
> >>
> >>To quote Thoreau: "I went to the woods because I wished to live
> >deliberately, to confront only the essential facts of life...I wanted to
> >live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and
> >Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life...simplify, simplify,
> >simplify."
> >>
> >>While Thoreau was believed to have suffered some serious "issues" of his
> >own when he spent too much time away from society, his words have always
> >found a home in my heart. Maybe I'm misinterpreting them, but am I alone
> in
> >finding true meaning inside them? Do we really need to bring all our toys
> >out there for a wilderness experience, or is that the experience we're
> even
> >after anymore?
> >>
> >>
> >>-Chuckie