[at-l] Technology on the trail...LONG..

[spiriteagle99@hotmail.com (Jim and/or Ginny Owen)]

Kahley -
I only have a couple minutes here so you'll get the short answer.




>
>OK......but that brings me back to the 'what is wildernesss' thread.
>How can there be wilderness and privies in the same deal?  Don't get
>me wrong, privies protect the woods but they sure do poke holes
>in the wilderness illusion.  Same deal with shelters.  These two
>combined, to me, represent as much of the "heart of civilized man"
>(home - hearth - convenience) as the cellphone in the bottom of the pack.
>You two are supremely qualified to evaluate this.  Did the presence
>or lack of shelters and privies contribute to the wilderness feel
>of the PCT and CDT?

Yes - more so on the CDT.  Probably partly because parts of the CDT really 
are still "wild", while the PCT is almost as "civilized" as the AT in many 
respects.  We never followed grizzly tracks on the PCT -- or on the AT. We 
never walked for 6 or 7 days on either the PCT or the AT without meeting 
other people.


>And back on cellphones, it seems to me that it would have a great deal
>to do with the way you used it.

Don't think so -- just the knowledge that it's there will give assurance 
that help is at the other end of the phone link.  If you don't have it then 
it's an entirely different and much "wilder" world.  And you need to be a 
lot more self-reliant - and a lot more careful.  We almost lost Ginny twice 
in Montana.  The first time she missed major injury by literally a fraction 
of an inch - and there was no help within a couple days march and no phone 
to call the Rescue Squad or Medevac chopper, much less to call for pizza  
:-))


Walk softly,
Jim



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