In 1964, the United States passed legislation called the Wilderness Act. This formalized a wilderness preservation system that had been in place since 1924. The act formalized the preservation of several land areas and also paved the way for further acts by states, tribal governments, and other entities to pass similar legislation to set aside large areas of land from human inhabitation.
Today, there are 757 designated wilderness areas, or about 110 million acres. I am not sure you could visit them all in a single lifetime, although I am certain some people have tried. There is a bit of controversy about the government stepping in and taking lands on such a large scale, I am not going to weigh in on that discussion. What I will weigh in on is how valuable it is to spend time in the wilderness. Being alone, isolated, and free from constant input is an amazing way to reconnect with a profound pragmatism that you can only find when you are hiking in the wilderness, living on only what you can carry on your back.
The wilderness. A place to find your real mind. What are you really like? How do you really think when there is nothing going on to influence you? This is an important and very real question that you can only discover away from the world, away from the beeps and blips of commercial society. When you are in the wilderness, you are also forced to deal with reality, which brings you to an about-face moment with how things are as they are. All the fancy notions and pretense quickly melt away as you are forced to handle the day-to-day aspects of survival, shelter, and navigation.
Once a year, I try to “go to the basement,” which is a phrase that I use to disappear for a while. I think I am borrowing that from Jim Rome, a famous radio personality from my neck of the woods. For the last few years, I have decided to take my kids and others who are coming out to the wilderness areas of the United States. I am focused on the “permit-free” ones. Last year, it was Wyoming; this year, it is New Mexico. I am heading this next week into the Gila Wilderness and navigating some of the rivers and plateaus there. Taking a giant loop through the wilderness area and seeing how far we can make it as we traverse through an area of the world not frequently inhabited by our species.
So, my articles are going to be short this week as my only form of communication is satellite transmission on a handheld radio. They will be themed, however, and focused on observations and considerations about living and thriving by taking a dip on occasion into your wilderness, wherever that may be.
