Technology in the Wilderness
Does technology belong in the wilderness?
Today when I was doing a short hike along the Transcept trail, I saw a man working on his lap top computer on a picnic table overlooking the rim of the Grand Canyon. Last week some visitors purchased a backcountry permit and wanted to know how hot it would get to have their car in the parking lot at the trailhead. It seemed they had a computer and were trying to decide if they needed to rent a hotel room for their computer or if they could leave it in their car. Two weeks ago, a group of boy scouts, out of water and dehydrated hiking the Thunder River trail, used a satellite phone to call out for help. Often I can tell if a person works in a National Park if they are hiking down a wilderness trail with an iPod and a pair of earphones stuck in their ears.
More and more people are bringing their technology to the backcountry areas of National Parks and wilderness areas. Should we experience wilderness as we have in the past, as a place without the intrusion of our fast paced lives or should we take technology with us to protect us from bad decision making and death?
OK, naturally no one wants to die. We didn’t ban advanced medical care or helicopters in the wilderness to save lives. And, no one has yet found a way to keep people from making bad decisions. Would we have wanted three or more boy scouts to die in Surprise Valley because it would have taken a day to hike someone back out to the car and drive to some place to phone in the problem? No, a satellite phone is a better option. So I guess that we do want technology of some sort in the backcountry.
But in selecting that answer as the one that preserves and protects life, we have to acknowledge that it should not be used frivolously for to use it in such a manner is to take from us the healing nature of wilderness, the solitude, the ability to become one again with nature. Perhaps what we should keep from the backcountry is portable music and game players. What is it that you gain in hiking down the trail listening to the sounds of civilization?