I never camped in the backcountry even once when I was a kid.
I first came across the idea that the need for wilderness is a product of urban lifestyles in Brian Donahue's Reclaiming the Commons a couple of years ago. Donahue does not take credit for this idea, he references others, but he illustrates it with his own life. It was one of those head-smaking now-I-get-it moments, though. It seemed like it explained so much about me.
That picture there, that's taken from the bluff at Amogla Camp, east of Sault Ste. Marie. I grew up there. There are bears that come and gorge themselves in the raspberry patch on the septic bed (we never saw them), and a rumour has it a cougar (I've never seen it). There is a lake, with some crown land on it. There are blueberries on the bluffs, and at night you can hear the MacKenzies' sled dogs howl but you'd swear they were wolves. You could also hear the outboard motors start at the crack of dawn, because that was good fishing time, but that never bugged me.
The longer I live in southern Ontario, the more I go camping, it seems. The more stressed out I am, the more ambitious my adventures get. The more time I spend in an apartment where I can hear traffic, the more peeved I am about motorized traffic noise in the backcountry. That whole Roderick Nash wilderness is a balance to civilization idea, it rings true for me.
Posted by Johanna at October 23, 2003 11:16 PM