# I do not like the wilderness
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483
**Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
**Created:** [April 19, 2024, 1:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483 "2024-04-19T01:12:45Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 4
### Author:  [@blondebear](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blondebear)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/61 "2024-04-19T22:50:23Z")
Good book on the subject:
[ ](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/81GF1kNd+JL._SL1500_.jpg)
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### Author:  [@VOW](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VOW)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/62 "2024-04-19T22:59:50Z")
As I stated upthread, our family does not camp.
Mr VOW and I got our fill of urban qualities after living for years in SCal, both of us retiring from the State of Confusion, I mean, California: crowds, traffic, smog, traffic, standing in line, traffic, and of course, traffic. Mr VOW is an amateur astronomer, and his skywatching was increasingly unsatisfactory because of the light pollution.
We both agreed a place "out in the middle of nowhere would be perfect for our retirement. We bought 36 acres in a rural subdivision out in the middle of nowhere, in kinda-sorta NE AZ. Dirt roads, no improvements, about 30 miles to a grocery store or the post office.
I requested running water, flush toilets, electricity, TV and internet. We have all that now. It took time and money (ohboy!), but we have everything on my list of demands, I mean, requirements. Mr VOW even has a separate observatory for his 14-inch reflector telescope.
We don’t camp. But we sure as Hell don’t live in the city, either!
😁
~VOW
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### Author:  [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/63 "2024-04-19T23:10:50Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#):
>
> That nasty water ain’t too pleasant to drink. What’s that disease?
Giardiasis. Otherwise called Beaver Fever. It is a lot like food poisoning, only without the food.
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 11:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/64 "2024-04-19T23:12:24Z")
Or amoebic dysentery.
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/65 "2024-04-19T23:16:32Z")
Not in a car. Not in a tree.
I do not like the wilderness,Sam, you see.
Not in a house. Not in a box.
Not with a mouse. Not with a fox.
I do not like wilderness here or there.
I do not like wilderness anywhere!
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 11:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/66 "2024-04-19T23:31:17Z")
> [@mbh](#):
>
> Not in a car. Not in a tree.
> I do not like the wilderness,Sam, you see.
Another nice one.
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### Author:  [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)
#### Post date: [April 19, 2024, 11:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/67 "2024-04-19T23:32:38Z")
> [@mixdenny](#):
>
> I have less then zero interest in camping out in the woods filled with nasty snarling rabbits and spiders.
Wait, are the spiders snarling or just the rabbits? Not sure how to parse that sentence, but I’ve never heard a spider snarl. Or a rabbit, for that matter.
Myself, I love the outdoors, love the woods and wilderness. It relaxes and resets me like not much else does.
That said, I would not mind seeing mosquitoes and ticks eradicated from existence.
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### Author:  [@Slow\_Moving\_Vehicle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slow_Moving_Vehicle)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2024, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/68 "2024-04-20T00:47:33Z")
> [@Whack-a-Mole](#):
>
> > [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](#):
> >
> > I’ve never had a problem with “snarling rabbits” although the hares of _Watership Down_ seem prepared for battle,
>
> Apparently you’ve never encountered the [Rabbit of Caerbannog](https://youtu.be/XcxKIJTb3Hg)! That rabbit’s got a vicious streak a mile wide. It’s a killer!
You Scottish git! I nearly soiled me armor!
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### Author:  [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2024, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/69 "2024-04-20T15:06:08Z")
I loves me some Wilderness. Most vacations involve some remote travel. We tend towards mountain huts for multi-day hiking trips these days, but generally tent camp when we’re canoeing. As we get older carrying tents and stoves is less easy but hut-to-hut hiking, especially in the Alps, is still a top priority.
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### Author:  [@mixdenny](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mixdenny)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2024, 4:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/70 "2024-04-20T16:31:43Z")
> [@solost](#):
>
> Wait, are the spiders snarling or just the rabbits? Not sure how to parse that sentence, but I’ve never heard a spider snarl. Or a rabbit, for that matter.
President Jimmy Carter would disagree with you.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [April 20, 2024, 4:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/71 "2024-04-20T16:38:02Z")
> [@Spice\_Weasel](#):
>
> I’m fascinated by wilderness survival stories. I read about Chris McCandless and doomed Everest excursions.
My favorite genre. Also, survival at sea. Problem is, I’ve read so many I now have a hard time finding more.
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### Author:  [@robby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/robby)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2024, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/72 "2024-04-21T14:40:39Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#):
>
> I love the wilderness. You learn a few safety skills – don’t take short cuts unless you really know how to navigate by topo map, recognize the signs of hypothermia, basic first aid, treat your water – and you’re good.
>
> …I find everything about cities and suburbs disturbing: artificial, ugly, unhealthy, abrasive, frightening, loud, brutal, deathly, and terribly terribly sad. I still have to go into them, but I always have to steel myself, and to recover afterward.
>
> And there’s your other side.
I’m with you, @Ulfreida. I love the outdoors and wilderness. I try to get to the outdoors every weekend if I can manage it. After ski season ended two weeks ago, I went on a five-mile hike up 750 vertical feet last weekend in a state park last weekend, and another hike yesterday in another state park. Soon I’ll work my way back up to mountains like Mount Wachusett and Mount Greylock in Massachusetts in preparation for hikes in the White Mountains this summer.
I’ve been on a half-dozen week-long canoe trips on the Allagash and Penobscot Rivers in Maine, and the Boundary Waters of Minnesota. As a Scoutmaster, I went on over a hundred overnight campouts with my son, plus a decade of summer camp.
With practice, most of the negative aspects of spending time in the outdoors goes away. I remember worrying about camping out in the rain, but learned how to deal with it. I remember struggling to hike up hills and mountains, but got much fitter with practice (and skiing!). I used to get terrible blisters on my heels, then finally got rid of my old ill-fitting hiking boots.
What’s left is the sense of calm and peace and quiet I get in the outdoors. It calms my mind, rejuvenates me, and provides good exercise to boot. On the latter point, it’s so much better than a gym.
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### Author:  [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2024, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/73 "2024-04-21T17:56:12Z")
I walk every morning I can. On a wooded route around our pond and a well trodden trail thru the woods.
We live in the backwoods and it’s primitive.
Snakes are coming awake now so we have to watch. Mainly for the dogs.
I mostly leave the critters be. We look and don’t touch.
I could not walk on pavement or urban walking path. I would never be relaxed.
Still I’m not likely to be camping out, rough. Anytime soon.
I could if I had to.
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### Author:  [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2024, 7:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/74 "2024-04-21T19:25:25Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#):
>
> Still I’m not likely to be camping out, rough. Anytime soon.
> I could if I had to.
Me too. We live next to many miles of hiking trails on public and private lands, no need to get into a car. I walk or ride my horse every day. In winter I snowshoe. But at my age I am no longer jonesing for those multi-day wilderness treks any more.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2024, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/75 "2024-04-21T20:30:11Z")
> [@mixdenny](#):
>
> President Jimmy Carter would disagree with you.
Any animal charging straight at you is unnerving.
We were asked to eradicate some ground squirrels that had over populated. One of them ran directly towards one of us.
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> My favorite genre. Also, survival at sea. Problem is, I’ve read so many I now have a hard time finding more.
Yes, I love those also. I can re-read KonTiki for example.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2024, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/76 "2024-04-21T21:38:14Z")
> [@DrDeth](#):
>
> Yes, I love those also. I can re-read KonTiki for example.
The stories of Arctic exploration are particularly harrowing.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2024, 10:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/77 "2024-04-21T22:24:05Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> The stories of Arctic exploration are particularly harrowing.
Except Scott. I just figured out he was a glory hound, and a poor loser that killed what- 5 guys? But some of them are great.
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2024, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/78 "2024-04-21T23:07:20Z")
I was thinking more of the disasters that happened, like the Franklin expedition, but people surviving the harshest of environments in early exploration are fascinating as well. I’m reading about Stanley’s Congo explorations at the moment.
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### Author:  [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)
#### Post date: [April 21, 2024, 11:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/79 "2024-04-21T23:56:25Z")
> [@Chefguy](#):
>
> I’m reading about Stanley’s Congo explorations at the moment.
I am reading about the making of the Panama Canal, plenty of disasters and exploring to start.
_The Path Between the Seas: The Creation of the Panama Canal, 1870-1914_
McCullough, David,
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### Author:  [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)
#### Post date: [April 22, 2024, 12:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-do-not-like-the-wilderness/1000483/80 "2024-04-22T00:01:26Z")
You should read “The Darkest Jungle”, by Todd Balf after that.
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