Re[6]: [at-l] Icons

[bullard@xxxxxxxxxxxx (Jim Bullard)]

At 11:21 AM 4/8/2003 -0400, rick boudrie wrote:
>>A robin doesn't know that she/he is a robin, much less a bird.  So why
>>should I call him/her a bird
>>or a robin?
>
>Its not just the name, its the anticipation that comes from having a bit
>of knowledge.
>
>While they are rather common, I never saw a Common Snipe before Sunday,
>when I came upon a half dozen along the road travelled by Paul Revere on
>another April day.   Its a cool bird.  My pleasure was magnified many
>times by knowing for a long time that I'd see one "one day", and that they
>day had come quite by surprise.
>
>On the Trail, I saw my first Spruce Grouse a score of years ago.  I wrote
>something about seeing a grey turkey-like bird in my journal.  It too was
>neat.  Without the anticipation of seeing one, the moment was less magical
>than it could have been, however.  For me, anyway.
The "for me" part is the key Rick. There's no right way to experience
wilderness. If knowing the name of the bird is important to you, by all
means study birds so you know their names. The unknown author of the
unknown journal that Weary quoted would probably have enjoyed his/her
thru-hike more if he/she had taken time to study tree, flower and bird
books before going. I have bird, flower and tree books around and when I
see something that makes me curious I look it up. Sometimes I even remember
the name the next time I see that tree, flower or bird. Weary and RnR seem
to think that an in-depth study of MacKaye's philosophy would insure that
everyone's wilderness would be satisfactory. Obviously it adds something
for them and they are eager to project their experience onto everyone else.

The real problem the unknown author had was that evidently he/she didn't
hike his/her own hike. Jim Owens said that people should plan their
thru-hike. That planning should take into account what is important to you
when hiking. If you allow others to make decisions about what's important,
when, how fast, how far, etc., it's not your hike. I met a former thru at
an outfitters once who told me that a thru-hike was a *job*. "You get up
and you do your miles every day", he said. He had gone with a group and
worked at staying with them. If that's what you want, fine, but any
regrets, whether you didn't know the names of things, whether you kept up
with so-and-so or didn't, or that you didn't read every word MacKaye ever
wrote before setting out, is an internal personal problem. It may be due to
unreasonable expectations of yourself or failure to recognize before
setting out what was important to you but there is no one prescription that
guarantees a satisfactory wilderness experience to all.