[at-l] Technology on the trail

[RoksnRoots@aol.com (RoksnRoots@aol.com)]

In a message dated 5/2/01 12:42:11 AM Eastern Daylight Time, 
WHHAWKINS@aol.com writes:

<< All the backpacking equipment is the result of technology. Don't want 
 technology on the trails. Leave it all at home. 
  >>

         I find this statement a woefully oversimplified view. 

     The technologies involved in backpacking are generally survival oriented 
facilitating objects that replace materials that would otherwise have been 
garnered from the local surroundings in the wilds. Nylon for lightweight 
packs and gear and sleeping bags and tents for shelter are all passive and 
replace what would otherwise be hacked from the woods. The gas stove saves 
firewood from being scoured away from campsites and the other items keep bows 
from being cut and wood lean-to's from being erected. It is a self-sufficient 
turtle shell on your back out of which you can voyage for days in the wilds 
and survive.

     To equate these passive items and devices to high-tech electronic 
communication devices designed to bring the choking smoke reality of a New 
York downtown crush of stock pressures and urban reality into the Trail 
corridor is antithetical to the "remote and detached" description of desired 
Trail experience. To know that you are linked directly to what the Trail was 
designed to escape in its constitution directly conflicts with its intended 
usage. I feel overgeneralized grouping of all hiking gear into this category 
is just a way to avoid confronting this dilemma.

     You should never forget that the Trail is an active project with an 
organic purpose that has to be maintained and monitored. It is more than just 
a generic nation park.