Death of Backpacking ...

[MIB]

I read this and it made me wonder about how the trend might affect the future of bigfooting.   More people, but less in the *deep* outdoors away from crowds?   Maybe we're on the verge of walling ourselves off in town and returning the forest to "them."

 

Article link: Death of Backpacking

 

MIB

 

[norseman]

It's not even a wall....it's a virtual wall. People's brains are being sucked into social media, xboxes, I phones and all the rest. People walk and text oblivious to the world around them. Scary.

 

As far as backpacking dying? They should look at mule/horse packing! Virtually a lost art to modern society.....

[OldMort]

I can assure you that backpacking is still alive and well in my neck of the woods. Backpackers are doing the Pacific Coast Trail and John Muir Trail more than ever before. You need to secure a wilderness permit months in advance for the JMT and the adjoining areas. My brother completed the JMT two summers ago at the age of 64, which is an impressive feat. He assured me that there certainly wasn't a shortage of young or younger people.

Interesting read but the article sounds like just more Gen-X drivel to me

Edited April 20, 2017 by OldMort

[SWWASAS]

You post had me thinking about the huge log walls  and gate around the native village in Cong until I read the link.  .      The younger set do not seem interested in doing anything hard.   Learning to fly for example is at all time low rates of starts.  Pilots are dying off faster than they are being trained.    Throw in the fact that loss of cell signal is an emergency to most millennials .    And if they get out of cell phone range or run down their battery,   they get lost at the rate of about one a week in the Columbia River gorge.    They park near the freeway and climb trails up the South  side of the gorge away from the freeway.   If they get lost, all they have to do is head towards the  the traffic sounds or go down hill.       Either one takes you to the freeway and from there all you have to figure out where you left your car.   East or West of where you are.       Yet week after week they get lost and cannot find their way out of the woods.   That takes real lack of awareness.  

[Airdale]

That whole article kind of leaves me dumbfounded (certainly not the first time). I've never read any books on backpacking, it was just something that we did, first in Boy Scouts then later with friends. Growing up in Helena, Montana in the fifties and sixties you didn't have to go backpacking in the "Wilderness" to find "solitude" when you could walk to the edge of town and up a mountain. I do agree that there seem to be a lot more people now who need a near constant adrenaline rush in order to find fulfillment, whether motorized, mechanical or just riding a surfboard down a snow covered slope at speeds that were the sole province of automobiles not that many decades ago. As in so many other areas of modern life it seems recreation is defined more by extremes, adrenaline junkies on one side and electronics based social media junkies on the other, than by any middle ground. It may also be that I'm getting tired and not making any sense.

[norseman]

The simple pleasures in life....

[MikeZimmer]

These trails are still popular on Vancouver Island, but I have no idea of the age distribution.

 

http://www.vancouverislandoutdoors.com/westcoasttrail/

 

http://www.juandefucamarinetrail.com/

 

With respect to comments of electronic device usage: People of all ages are constantly on their smart phones, everywhere, but on the other hand, I spend a lot of time in front of a computer. Maybe I should stop being a Luddite and get a smart phone.

[SWWASAS]

If you are a Luddite,  then so am I.     I hear stories of the younger set seeing no need to own a TV because they watch on their devices.      A young woman in Portland was hit by a train recently because she had her head in her smartphone and walked in front of the train.   I think there is diagnosed disorder recognized by mental health professionals about people who develop anxiety when they are separated from their portable devices.    Walking in front of trains is pretty serious evidence something is going on.  

[wiiawiwb]

I've always believed that one or two people backpacking is the best way to have an encounter. No large vehicles around a campsite. No equipment set up here and there. Using a light footprint that a BF could understand and probably feel more safe around.  My best results have been backpacking into certain areas with several friends of mine who share the BF passion. 

 

Backpacking means you're limited in what you can bring as far as recording and field equipment is concerned. That's ok by me because I'm looking to see one not necessarily to digitally catch one.

 

I see fewer people nowadays in more remote areas and more people on the "easy-to-get-to" hiking trails.

 

 

Edited May 1, 2017 by wiiawiwb

[SWWASAS]

Well if where you are is like here, the National Forest roads are so poorly maintained that you risk broken axles driving on them.    Huge potholes and no maintenance what so ever.    No wonder people are seen less in the true back country.