This summer, and the summer before, I spent my vacation in the White Mountains of New Hampshire helping to maintain and build foothpaths through the forests. It's quite a different way to experience a landscape. Drainage, waterbars (rock & wood), treadway, pick-mattic, bogbridge, 18 pound rockbar (and the 12 lb "backpacking" version) blaze. If nothing else my vocabulary expanded. The wilderness environment for most urban folks is thought of largely as space devoted to recreation, adding to that perception the perspective of the wilderness as workspace makes for an interesting shift in the whole concept of the thing... well at least it did for me.

No less fascinating was the social aspect of the situation. In the midst of the Presidential Range at the feet of Mount Washington and Mount Adams is Camp Dodge. A former Civil Conservation Corps camp, now run by the Appalachian Mountain Club, Camp Dodge is the base for many volunteers that work thought the region maintaining trails. The AMC (for a small fee, yes, I paid money to volunteer) provides training, equipment, food and guidance to folks who come from all over to work in the woods. So a bunch of strangers are put together on a crew, go off into the wilderness, and attempt to do some rather strenuous, unfamiliar work. You couldn't ask for a better social experiment, and again I find the whole thing fascinating and exciting. In learning about strangers through working and living together in the woods I feel that I have gained both personally, and in my knowledge of human nature. Of course this isn't by any means a accurate cross section of society, remember, we all paid money to work, a special and wonderful kind of madness.

Well, I could go on for quite some time about this... and in fact I think I will, but perhaps another time. For now you can look at some other images.

Have you taken a walk in the woods as of late?

  It's an interesting experience isn't it? A walk which is pursued not because of a need to travel, or to reach a particular destination. For that we largely depend on cars & other such devises. We may perhaps walk to the corner store, maybe even to work, or a friends house, but a walk in the woods falls outside that set entirely.

  Not too long ago western culture viewed the woods with fear and trepidation. European colonist faced with the vast wilderness of the New World thought it to be a savage and fearful place, full of dark, evil, danger, lust and home of the boogyman.

  Somehow or another that idea shifted. I don't know how or why but I'm trying to learn more about it. But without a doubt by the nineteenth century the idea of a recreation and spending time in the outdoors pursuing leisure had caught on. Wilderness was no longer represented the Puritans idea of Savage and had come to be a symbol of enlightenment for the Romantics, especially that bunch of writers out of Concord Massachusetts.

  The first paths through the woods, those made by the Nipmunks, Mohawks and other peoples who were walking around the forest before the Europeans crossed the sea, have become roads and railways. A good deal of the small & medium highways that crisscross the states originated as footpaths and some even retain names that reflect their origin. Route 2 in Massachusetts isn't called the Mohawk trail simply to suit the travel brouches.

  The folks whom had a desire to explore the woods began following old logging roads, and with time made new trails through the wilderness.

  Fascinating don't you think?

  I just find the whole shift in attitudes as well as the idea that so many people place value on an activity whose benefits are quite difficult to quantify. Both seem contrary to a lot of the what we believe are fundamental values that our culture holds. I like that maybe we aren't as simple as many folks would like to think.