Good book on the subject:
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
Giardiasis. Otherwise called Beaver Fever. It is a lot like food poisoning, only without the food.
Or amoebic dysentery.
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!
Another nice one.
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.
You Scottish git! I nearly soiled me armor!
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.
President Jimmy Carter would disagree with you.
My favorite genre. Also, survival at sea. Problem is, I’ve read so many I now have a hard time finding more.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Yes, I love those also. I can re-read KonTiki for example.
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.
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.
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,
You should read “The Darkest Jungle”, by Todd Balf after that.