[pct-l] tech

[kraig.mottar at verizon.net (Kraig Mottar)]

I'm not really annoyed by it, but, apparently some are. For me its not a case of being annoyed, but of thinking, why bother. If I saw on a hike and saw someone with an electronic game like a playstation I'd probably stop and maybe play on it and be on my way and not really miss it. Though, I might have a different attitude if someone who came with me brought one along. I have a playstation myself and enjoy it, in my house. I guess some people are more addicted to technology than others.

If I'm taking a trip to the wilderness I leave the tech home, but if I lived there, and I'm sure some do and will as the world gets more complicated as it will, I might have a little of the tech.

I guess it's a matter of severity. I'll take the goretex gloves, GPS, and notebook, but not a computer or tons of radio equipment. As for radio equipment, tons of radio equipment will fit in your pocket, it's called a repeater.

I also have the same attitude you do, the wilderness is large, and if the person yacking on the cel phone bothers me I'll go a few miles farther.

Kraig

> From: Mark Wright <mellowmarky@cox.net>
> Date: 2005/01/19 Wed AM 01:03:00 PST
> To: Kraig Mottar <kraig.mottar@verizon.net>
> CC: <pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net>
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] tech
> 
> No one needs technology at home either. The human race has survived for  
> millions of years without it and much of the world still does. Why  
> don't we get rid of our appliances and live as the ancestors of our  
> ancestors did? Then we won't need to go to the wilderness and get away  
> from it all because the wilderness won't be any different from home.  
> However, I choose to keep my refrigerator.
> 
> The question of what you need misses the point. However minimalist your  
> approach may be a clever person can always get by just fine with less  
> or nothing at all, but that doesn't mean they want to. Some people,  
> clever or not, gain comfort from or find utility in their gadgets. It's  
> a matter of what you want, what you're comfortable with and what you  
> are willing to carry. If you think that the sound of a stream is the  
> most beautiful thing then leave your iPod at home. If listening to your  
> favorite song beside that same stream brings you bliss then bring your  
> iPod with you. If calling your beloved from the top of a mountain just  
> to say "Guess where I am?" brings happiness to you and your loved one  
> then bring your cell phone. And if you see someone typing away at their  
> laptop while sitting under a tree at the edge of a serene meadow full  
> of dear and procreating rabbits consider this before you criticize  
> them: How does that compare to the view from your office? None of these  
> people are any more or less deserving of the wilderness experience and  
> it should not be assumed that any of them enjoy or appreciate the  
> wilderness any more or less than anybody else. Just be happy that  
> they're happy.
> 
> Some of us enter the wilderness to get away from it all, some of us  
> just want to get away from most of it, and some people have other  
> reasons that nobody will understand. If you are bothered by somebody's  
> technology the problem is not the technology. The problem is within  
> yourself.
> 
> I think that the whole "getting away from it all" thing is a myth. It  
> all goes back to recreating that romantic vision of John Muir and his  
> pocket full of stale bread. If you truly wanted to get away from it all  
> you wouldn't be bringing a couple hundred dollars worth of gear. You  
> would sleep on the ground, cover yourself with pine needles for warmth,  
> fish with your bare hands and make fire by rubbing two sticks together.  
> You would be gone for as long as you please with no return date and no  
> destination in mind except maybe "over there." The fact that you bring  
> a sleeping bag and gore-tex (which, by the way, is a synthetic material  
> made possible by technology) and follow a structured plan, however  
> loose that plan may be, is proof that you aren't getting away from it  
> all, even if you left your watch and sundial behind. You're just  
> getting away from some of it. The point of this rant is that we all  
> must choose for ourselves what we want to get away from and accept the  
> fact that we will meet other people who made different choices.
> 
> So, if you see me in the wilderness jotting a note in my palm pilot and  
> it bothers you, keep on walking. It's ok to think that I'm strange  
> because I am. Just trust that I have my reasons for bringing it along  
> and it makes my life easier. Before you know it I will be out of sight  
> and, hopefully, out of mind. And it won't bother me if you're bare ass  
> naked and chewing on a raw fish with pine needles in your hair. I may  
> think you're strange, but that's ok.
> 
> 
> Mark
> 
> 
> I guess I could have just said HYOH and let me HMOH, but that would  
> have been too easy
> -----
> Have fun or die trying - but try not to actually die.
> http://www.AboveCalifornia.com
> Got Mac OS X? Get the AboveCalifornia Sherlock Channel:
> sherlock://www.AboveCalifornia.com/sherlock/SherlockChannel.xml? 
> action=add
> On Jan 18, 2005, at 11:00 PM, Kraig Mottar wrote:
> 
> > No one "needs" any technology when hiking...
> > If a person can't do without a cel phone it is doubful they would  
> > enjoy hiking to begin with.