[at-l] Cell Phones - It's Not the Phone, It's The Courtesy That Matters

[Bob C." <ellen@clinic.net (Bob C.)]

"...One  assumption  a  lot  of  backpackers  make  is  that "manmade" things or
"technology" on trails "isn't natural", and thus to be avoided and criticized. "
suggests Russ.

However,  I  doubt very much if his suggestion is true. Even Earl Shaffer's 1948
pack  was  the  latest  available. Kelty's first "modern" pack a few years later
recognized  and  improved  on the US Army's improvement on the Ruck Packs of the
30s.

The  objection  is  not  to  improvements  to  the ordinary things that wildness
seekers  from time immemorial have sought -- i.e. light weight food and shelter.
Rather  we  (a  few  of  us  anyway)  object  to the intrusion of the symbols of
civilized life that we are trying to escape.

These  symbols vary from person to person. Those that gall ME the most are sharp
pointed hiking sticks that poke holes in the trail soil, causing erosion of that
soil;  (I  know some can't bring themselves to believe that something they think
so useful causes harm, but it does) and devices that bring instant communication
with the outside world (cell phones.)

I'm  not  a purist in these matters. I often carry a tiny radio, so I can listen
to an occasional late night jazz show. Somehow, wild music seems compatible with
a  wild  trail  --  or  at least more compatible than regular conversations with
spouses, stock brokers, bosses and the like. YMMV.

Weary