My first “handle” on The Internet was “hiker”. That was then, as best I can recall, in 1999, when I first got in-home service (dial up). Then, in 2001, when I opened my bookstore at the Elk Bridge Center in Evergreen, Colorado, my handle was “BSGhikes”, or Bookstore Guy Hikes. However, my love of hiking began way back in 1966. For me, hiking then and now is the same.
My family had just moved to Northern, Colorado; and it was in that summer when my high school friend took me up into the Rawah Wilderness. We back-packed in for eight miles and eight days. I only have this one picture:
I was reminded of this because I’ve taken to watching Nick Sangetta’s YouTube videos on hiking in Northern Colorado. They are beautiful and I highly recommend them. He’s been doing this since 2012 – which is about when I began to slow down. My last hike was in 2016.*
Nevertheless, the wilderness doesn’t change much. Despite what the eco-freaks will tell you. There are still large snow fields in August. (Also, still violent thunderstorms, rainbows, floods, rock slides, avalanches, and wildfires.) However, Nick is very hesitant to do what Rod and I did when we were teenagers. We were fearless! Said another way–stupid.
Changes
What has changed now is the numbers of people flooding the wilderness. Hiking has become a trend. In vogue. Additionally, the gear and the technology. There is a Fashion Industry devoted to hiking. Hiking has become big business.
Now, the experience of Colorado’s wilderness powers much of the state’s economy. Not just downhill skiing. Moreover, everything costs money! Even a simple hike!!
For instance: A hike to Hanging Lake you’ll have to make a reservation, online, and it will cost you $12. To hike in Rocky Mountain National Park – the same. It’s crazy.
Rod and I had canvas rucksacks, a canvas tent, flannel sleeping bags, and gym bags filled with canned food. We had no rain gear, water filters, gas stoves, GPS systems, cell phones, Go-Pro cameras, and so on and so forth. We had a topographic map, a compass, matches, and a flashlight. Additionally, some fishing gear and hunting knife.
It was an adventure. There were few other people. If you made a mistake, it could cost you your life. No one was coming to rescue you. Nobody knew where we were. The experience was truly wild.
Then And Now
I’ve got a few photos, and screen shots from Nick’s videos that show the same spots.
This shot is of Pawnee Pass in the Indian Peaks Wilderness, which butts up against The Wild Basin in Rocky Mountain National Park. When I had Shadow, who died in 2007, I didn’t hike RMNP because dogs, then as now, are not allowed on the trails.
The sign has weathered quite a bit. The hike? The same–fairly strenuous.
This was a hike with kids I’d taken to the Wild Basin as part of “Wilderness Therapy”**, a program I was a huge proponent of. There was no charge to enter the park. It was quite the adventure as these were troubled kids with attachment disorders.
This was my first hike into the Wild Basin. I had read about it in Marc Conly’s book Waterfalls Of Colorado (1993). I took my son Jake (9 years old) with me. He took the picture. I still have, and use, the hiking stick which I made in 1986. It’s now a “walking” stick.
The only change in 32 years is that dead tree that bridged the falls’ waters rush has come down. Additionally, the water–which comes from the west, the Pacific Ocean. But then flows into the Atlantic. So that’d be different water, but the rush is the same because the rocks haven’t moved.
In Conclusion
Some things change and some things don’t. Hiking is a good example. Over the span of sixty years what hasn’t changed is the geography, and the physical nature of what it takes to hike in wild lands. In 1966 when I fell in love with the experience–it was an adventure and a challenge. It was romantic. Yes! Because of the beauty, awe, and wonder.
Watching Nick Sangetta’s videos now from the comfort of my living room gives me (almost) the same feeling. For that I am so grateful. Thank you, Nick! (PEACE. big smile.) Without the changes in technology this wouldn’t be possible.
However, those same changes in technology make me question the experience of hiking. Is it the same? Then as now? The crowds are crazy! Nick goes beyond the crowds and risks his life to make his videos. He might be as crazy as I was. so there is that–the love of nature and its beauty.
That said, I want to shout, STOP IT! “You” are effing it all up! Turning hiking into a commodity to be sold for profit. A fad and fashion for fools to frolic in to feel good! Is nothing sacred?
* This hike is recounted in my last book, Election 2016, in the chapter “The Last Hike: October 29, 2016”. Nick has many videos of this very hike.
** In January of 2000, I wrote an essay (It’s available in my book Sounding Off IN Echo Hills) “The Power Of Wilderness”. It was first published in the local paper as a Letter to the Editor (how quaint). The crux was I was lobbying against a planned development in the open space area of Beaver Brook Watershed. Because I had used that area, and seen its effectiveness in my Wilderness Therapy project. “We” won. As “We” did opposing the Two Forks Dam proposal.
I guess I was an eco-freak back then. Back then, before now, that’s how we did politics.