Wilderness Tripping, or what?

Neutral Corners
Would you two go to neutral corners, or rivers and cool off. I value both your opinions on many paddling subjects. This is getting off topic and too personal.

Yes there are a lot of questions posted on the “wilderness board” that have only to do with camping or tripping. But they do get answered. And perhaps by more knowledgeable folks than the poster might find on other boards. So the questioner sits in the wrong pew; but they are in the right church.

Enjoy the day, and keep posting,

Bill

not getting enough attention lately g2d?
How about you stop trolling for attention and get out and paddle?

There’s an idea!

– Last Updated: May-28-12 8:17 PM EST –

Go out and paddle and stop typing. Not much in the way of wilderness typing on your computer.

People are communicating just fine.

Wilderness tripping…
… maybe the place to start is aligning the title with the description. The forum title says:



Wilderness Tripping - BWCA & Beyond

From the Adirondacks to Yellowstone, from Maine to California paddlers are venturing into the wilderness for weekends or extended trips. Meet others, discuss locations, gear, and more!



Wilderness isn’t defined and I’m thinking that a weekend in the “wilderness” is a hard thing to pull off and open for interpretation. A weekend trip is easier and falls within the forum description.



Like g2d I do find this particular message board forum to not usually align with my idea of wilderness and isn’t a place where I go for information, however, the content does usually align with the forum description. It’s tough to find a good place to exchange information with others who go to areas where most do not (my idea of wilderness).



I think that this forum, as is, serves the majority of the fine folks who make Pnet a regular part of their life.



Jon

http://3meterswell.blogspot.com

You might want to try some more
consistently controversial forums, to thicken your skin. Kayakmedic and I aren’t about to permanently fall out over one issue.



For all the fine people who show up on pnet, there’s a higher proportion than I’ve encountered on any other board who just will not abide comments about what appears on a forum. Go to any other paddling forum I know, post on the wrong board, and if the administrator doesn’t correct you, several others will.



I don’t care anymore about occasional misplaced posts, but this particular forum is drifting far from its original purpose, and value.



I guess I could wait until all of the Emperor’s clothes are gone.

Beside the point, both of you.
If you don’t see an issue here, or just don’t care, then why show up here at all? Go paddle yourself.

I’d say about half aligns with
“wilderness.”



Brent could redefine it as a forum for any sort of extended canoeing and camping. That might fit. I just read a report of a three day canoe camping trip on a canal/river in the Netherlands, and by no stretch of the imagination was it wilderness. But they encountered many of the same issues.



I got a chuckle out of a recent post that asked for wilderness day trips. If you can get in and out in a day, then I suppose it might be some eastern “wilderness area” but it no longer sounds to me like wilderness tripping.

I plead guilty
I guess I’m an offender since I have been soliciting camping recommendations near Washington DC, which is most definitely a bearucratic wilderness, but maybe not a paddling one. I had the good fortune to do a trip in BCWA a while back and I hope to again someday. But for the time being, the wildest place I’ll be paddling probably will have “State Park” somewhere in the title.



It did actually cross my mind that maybe I was posting in the wrong spot and that the paddling spots I had in mind weren’t epic enough to really count as “wilderness tripping”. But what other forum should I have posted in? I didn’t want to argue with anyone, so B&B was out. My question certainly wasn’t fishing or asking for partners. The Advice forum is all “what’s the best kayak/canoe for me?” and “how do I fix my XYZ?” (althought the “kayak wholesale” thread on there is pretty entertaining) The Paddler’s Place is all “rudder vs. skeg” debates, musings about trip reports, and links to news stories about dudes who drown and weren’t wearing a PFD. So this forum still seemed like the best spot. I reasoned that localish trips are still within the scope of “and Beyond”.

Sometimes it is a best-fit choice
I’ve posted questions about non-wilderness area camping before because this forum is the closest match to the kind of advice I sought.



Calling it “paddle-camping” would avoid problems about defining wilderness, I agree. However, it doesn’t seem to be an actual problem for most people who come to Pnet.

wilderness
at least according to Wikipedia, is defined by the extent of human impact and development, not how long it takes to get there:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilderness



by that standard (and also allowing that places are sometimes returned to being free of development), there are a surprising amount of places within a few hours of DC that would shock some people upon seeing how wild they are.

You might actually get a better response
on Advice, Discussion, or People & Places. This forum has gotten slow, and I think one reason is the discrepancy between the guideline (quite good and well-stated) and what people read in the “Wilderness” threads. We’ve lost most of the “wilderness” canoe campers who are still on myccr and even Song of the Paddle.

I LIKE this board just the way it is…

– Last Updated: Jun-19-12 11:25 AM EST –

..oh! and any excuse to tell g2d to go stuff himself is a plus!...thanks fer stoppin' by to enable me.

Now go stuff yer self biscuit eater.

Here’s a thought for you, g2d:
Let BRENT decide when HIS boards need policing, scolding and instructive posts to bring people back on topic. It is HIS creation, HIS livelihood, and HIS baby. I’m sure if he really wants YOUR help, he knows how to get in touch with to ask for it.



Has he asked you for help? Then shut up already.





YoS

You’re stuck on your own definition.
Which likely means nothing to anyone else. Where I paddle with friends on WW in West Virginia, once you put on, you are not taking off without a 7-10 mile hike with no trails, up to 800’ climbs, and no help along the way, all while leaving your gear behind. And there is zero chance of first aid other than what you or someone in your group can provide. That’s a reasonable definition of “wilderness” in my opinion, though unlikely yours because we “get in and out in a day”. So what? Brent didn’t define it further than he did, so what gives you the right to make decisions and give directions for him?



If the site’s not useful for you, g2d, the door is easily found. Be sure not to let it bump you on the way out.





YoS

Momma
Grow up you sound like a child…If you look at the post and board he is right

You’re being silly again.

It’s nice to see the boad policeman
is still doing his job

maybe he never saw Deliverance

Way to change the subject .
What does BWCA and beyond mean to you? Twelve miles on Chattooga 3 with many known exit points? One of the largest formal wilderness areas in the east, the Cohuttas, is not much as wilderness goes. The rivers that run through it have been run, occasionally. I have run one of them, and I have walked every mile of both rivers. I never assumed I was in wilderness. None of the whitewater paddlers I’ve known since 1974 would consider them wilderness.



But it isn’t that which makes me scratch my head. It’s people that come to this forum talking about trips on rivers that have settlements all up and down, or an overnight on a lake that has prepared campsites. (BWCA is getting a bit like that.)



If you want a wilderness forum where most posters aren’t talking about wilderness, you know how to get it. But it won’t change the fact that most paddlers DO NOT call that wilderness, and that the forum guideline does not read that way.



What frustrates some of you is that I’m right, but I won’t go away when you yell at me.

What are you doing over here? I can’t
remember when I last saw you on the wilderness forum. Same for Yak of Pewter. I guess you’re just another policeman, like me. Takes one to know one.



But you wouldn’t know a real issue if it crawled in your boat and bit you.