Quote Originally Posted by Starchild View Post
As I see it, it is evolving back to what it once was and increasing in this new way, not decreasing. Old style backpacking going down, new style (which really is the old old style) going way up.

There is a wonderful convergence happening with technology, people (society) and nature, this was our ancient and sacred connection with Mother Earth that is being reformed and reintroduced. We didn't live isolated from nature, or each other, we were part of both and our technology (tools and toys) we had with us.

The old backpacking trend has historically been for people to come into nature to get away from society and this form of escape from society and technology and has been handed down generation to generation through hiking clubs and others who ventured out. For many decades this was the main intro one had to nature.
The number has been proportionally very low and recently the hiking clubs failed reaching the next generation. Thus the old way is losing numbers, but for people who need to escape this style will never die out, there will always be those people who chose this type of experience, just it will no longer be the norm.

The new trend is that society is coming back into nature in huge numbers, not to escape life, but to live with it, to include nature as part of their normal lives, as we also include technology as part of our normal lives, and to have them blend synergisticly. The internet and the convergence of technology (smartphone), and much lighter and more comfortable hiking and backpacking gear has opened up the wilds for the 'children of the earth' (all of us) to come and play and they are coming, and mother nature welcomes her children back.

The greater use of the internet and social media, along with the growth of interest in books and movies will hit a critical mass, if it has not already, where this trend will be self sustaining, the draw of people to nature will be the shear numbers of people already drawn, and sharing their experiences and lives with others.

With the different type of experience sought between the new and old groups, a different style of backpacking is to be expected. Backpacking may involve more travel through towns along the way, not seek out places of solitude but where they can find like minded people at powerful places of great beauty.
This is a very strange post even though I think I get the gist of it. It is mind-blowingly optimistic and almost expressed in covert terms especially paragraph 4---who knows what you're talking about??---although you almost explain it in paragraph 6 with your "backpacking may involve more travel through towns . . "---a very depressing trend in my opinion.

Your quote: "The internet and the convergence of technology . . . has opened up the wilds for the 'children of the earth (all of us) to come and play and they are coming, and mother nature welcomes her children back." All I can think of is this quote from Edward Abbey---

"Once upon a time there was a continent covered with beautiful pristine wilderness, where giant trees towered over lush mountainsides and rivers ran wild and free through deserts, where raptors soared and beavers labored at their pursuits and people lived in harmony with wild nature, accomplishing every task they needed to accomplish on a dailv basis using only stones, bones and wood, walking gently on the Earth. Then came the explorers, conquerors, missionaries, soldiers, merchants and immigrants with their advanced technology, guns, and government. The wild life that had existed for millennia started dying, killed by a disease brought by alien versions of progress, arrogant visions of manifest destiny and a runaway utilitarian science.



"In just 500 years, almost all the giant trees have been clear-cut and chemicals now poison the rivers; the eagle has faced extinction and the beaver's work has been supplanted by the Army Corps of Engineers. And how have the people fared? What one concludes is most likely dependent on how well one is faring economically, emotionally and physically in this competitive technological world and the level of privilege one is afforded by the system. But for those who feel a deep connection to, a love and longing for, the wilderness and the wildness that once was, for the millions now crowded in cities, poor and oppressed, unable to find a clear target for their rage because the system is virtually omnipotent, these people are not faring well. All around us, as a result of human greed and a lack of respect for all life, wild nature and Mother Earth’s creatures are suffering. These beings are the victims of industrial society.



"Cutting the bloody cord, that’s what we feel, the delirious exhilaration of independence, a rebirth backward in time and into primeval liberty, into freedom in the most simple, literal, primitive meaning of the word, the only meaning that really counts. The freedom, for example, to commit murder and get away with it scot-free, with no other burden than the jaunty halo of conscience.
"My God! I’m thinking, what incredible **** we put up with most of our lives--the domestic routine, the stupid and useless and degrading jobs, the insufferable arrogance of elected officials, the crafty cheating and the slimy advertising of the businessmen, the tedious wars in which we kill our buddies instead of our real enemies back home in the capital, the foul, diseased and hideous cities and towns we live in, the constant petty tyranny of the automatic washers, the automobiles and TV machines and telephones-! ah Christ!,... what intolerable garbage and what utterly useless crap we bury ourselves in day by day, while patiently enduring at the same time the creeping strangulation of the clean white collar and the rich but modest four-in-hand garrote!



"Such are my thoughts—you wouldn’t call them thoughts would you?—such are my feelings, a mixture of revulsion and delight, as we float away on the river, leaving behind for a while all that we most heartily and joyfully detest. That’s what the first taste of the wild does to a man, after having been penned up for too long in the city. No wonder the Authorities are so anxious to smother the wilderness under asphalt and reservoirs. They know what they are doing. Play safe. Ski only in a clockwise direction. Let’s all have fun together."
--Edward Abbey, Desert Solitaire, 1968

I believe Abbey shows the real interface between wilderness and human technology, and not some revisionist idea of more Americans somehow "synergistically" combining the glories of technology with the glories of nature and wilderness. Unless you want backpackers to stay glued to their GPS devices and screens and phones 24-7 or to fly personal drones for that special gopro nature moment or to twitter out their exact locations hourly. The last forest will fall to make the next silicone chip factory.

Not to go on a Ted Kaczynski rant, but technology is ruining the Southeast wilderness areas where I backpack and nothing but a drastic change will help. The air pollution in the Great Smoggy Mountains National Park is worse than the city of LA. Nonstop overhead jet traffic from the airports of Atlanta and Knoxville and Chattanooga and Asheville kill the silence of the original forest. Screaming racing motorcyclists ruin the mountain stillness with their muffler-less harleys. ATVs want to invade the mountain trails and will do so unless stopped.

I see no trend of this getting better. In fact, by 2050 the US will have around 440 million people---not a good number for wilderness areas. Heck, the Grand Canyon already has around 60,000 tourist helicopter flights yearly. Talk about noise pollution.

Phew, sorry for this early morning RANT.