Back in the old days, the only electronic intrusion on a Big Wild Adventure was represented by an occasional client with a transistor radio. Which we strongly discouraged. Nowadays, folks have access to cell phones, GPS units, i-pods,  i-pads, emergency locator beacons, twitters, kindles and goddess knows what else that’s fomenting in the technophiliac dreams of the next Mark Zuckerberg. Whatever happened to a simple old paperback? And an old-fashioned map?

The Wilderness Act of 1964 defines wilderness as a place “where the Earth and its community of life are untrammeled…” and “where man [humans] is a visitor who does not remain”. The Wilderness Act also forbids motorized devices and all “mechanized” forms of transport. Thus, silence, self-reliance and solitude are three widely revered wilderness values. The way we at Big Wild see it, a backpack full of electronic gadgets degrades the wilderness idea. Obviously, these devices are not physically destructive like chainsaws or ATV’s (all-terrain vehicles), for example. Yet by making wilderness a bit more like everywhere else, electronic devices subvert the quest to keep the idea of real wilderness alive in the American psyche. That’s my story and I’m sticking to it.

Emerson once stated that “foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds”. To prove our company’s lack of foolish consistency (with the thesis of this essay), I admit that we now require our guides to carry an emergency communication device, such as a cell or satellite phone. As owners of Big Wild Adventures, Marilyn and I accept this as a necessary nod to the reality of today’s culture. Big Wild is a business, responsible for the safety of our clients. And we take that responsibility seriously. So we carry an emergency communication device and practice wilderness safety with experienced fanaticism. And besides, there are lots of lawyers out there, chomping at the bit for an outfitter who fails to quickly secure help in a true emergency.

Lawyers and commercial guide enterprises aside, gadgets detract from the wilderness experience. They add to an increasingly watered-down view of wilderness. Real wilderness comes with storms, floods, wildfire, cliffs and large carnivores. Large carnivores force us to become part of the food web, and that makes us feel more alive! Too many people nowadays expect wilderness to be easy and convenient. No discomfort, please. And, good heavens, let’s eliminate all risk (though driving to the trailhead is nearly always the riskiest part of any wilderness venture).

Here’s an alternative: learn to use a simple map and compass, and a GPS becomes superfluous ballast. Maps require no batteries. A compass does not need to be re-charged. When your gadget fails, you won’t be able to re-charge it by plugging into a currant bush.You can try, but good luck! Instead, glass the meadow edge for moose. Or grizzlies. Listen to the wind rustling through the aspens, not your i-pod. Watch the sunset, not a mini-computer screen. Don’t we get enough computer glow at home?

Then there’s the fellow who activated his emergency locator beacon in the depths of the Grand Canyon to summon a helicopter because the water tasted salty. The chopper arrived, but the rescue was refused. This is, I admit, an extreme example of techno-abuse, but it illustrates a point: there are morons out there. Some of them backpack. And all of these gizmos make it easier, at the very least, for idiots to inconvenience or endanger others.

Most important, the way we see it, is the need to get our brains, along with our bodies, out into the wilds away from techno-civilzation’s ten million distractions. And let’s take responsibility for being safe in wild country. For if an emergency helicopter is always at your beck and call, isn’t it more likely that you’ll let down your guard at some critical juncture? Isn’t it likely that we’re more careful when there’s no way to easily contact outside help?

The Wilderness Act also discusses wilderness as a place “in contrast” to civilized landscapes. The more we add these civilized trappings to our wilderness load, the quicker that contrast disappears. In this increasingly crowded and hectic world, the last thing we need is wilderness that further resembles civilization. So please, leave your gadgets at home. Listen to the wind; learn the magic of a sunset, the wisdom of the wolf howl. Help to preserve the idea of real wilderness. And let’s have the courage to accept the wilderness on its own terms and to be responsible for our own safety, with no easy way out.

Yellowstone National Park is not just a magnificent and unique wild landscape, but it also affords us humans the primeval opportunity to be incorporated into the food chain and travel through the digestive track of a grizzly. Or does it?

The correct answer is, “barely”. If you try hard, or if you are an unlucky one in many a million, then yes, you might end up as bear poop. But at least in Yellowstone, you are much more likely to drown. Or fall to your ultimate demise. Or even to be par-boiled in a hot spring. And you are, quite literally, at least a hundred times more likely to depart this world in a car wreck. Beware the wayward Winnebago!

I recently re-read a cheerful book called Death In Yellowstone, by Lee H. Whittlesey (1995) and have taken some notes and updated the statistics based upon my recollection of news reports since the book was published. This discussion pertains to Yellowstone National Park and immediately adjacent lands in the heart of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. As you are about to see, automobiles, snowmobiles, drowning, hot springs and falls constitute by far, the greatest dangers to life and limb in the world’s first national park. Before I begin to throw the numbers at you, however, I should mention a couple of caveats.

You’ll note a death toll of 11 in and around Yellowstone, due to bears. This figure includes one early 20th century trapper who was killed by a bear that he’d caught in a leg-hold trap. The angry Griz ripped himself loose leaving behind 3 of its toes, and took it out on the trapper. You sure can’t blame that bear! It also includes 2 photographers who unwisely tried for closeups, one fellow who camped illegally near a garbage dump, and  two folks who were car-camping next to a highway just outside the park, where bears had become habituated to unsecured human food and garbage. Another victim, a young woman from Switzerland, appeared to have done everything right, except that she was traveling alone in the backcountry. The moral of the story is that if you travel with others and conscientiously follow all of the safety rules for bear country, the odds of death by Griz are astronomically low!

I’ll also mention that many of the hot pool deaths involved a fall, and most of the falling deaths involved canyons. Therefore, if fall you must, make sure that you’re not near a big drop-off or a hot pool. Try, real hard, to land right where you are on soft grass or pine needles. Also, whatever you do, don’t take a canoe trip with the Boy Scouts on one of Yellowstone’s icy lakes, assuming that you don’t want hypothermia and/or drowning to loom in your future.  And be careful crossing streams and rivers. Whenever you’re near a raging torrent, don’t fall in! In other words, be careful and follow the specific instructions of your Big Wild guide. Thus, you will be unlikely to drown or otherwise fuel the fires of natural selection. OK, here’s the breakdown:

• Auto and snow-machine accidents: > 1,0000.
• Drowning: >100 (evidence that humans diverged from fish many eons ago)
• Earthquakes/Landslides: 28 (all at Hebgen Lake,1959; talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time!)
• Falls: >20 (Our own worst enemy? our own two feet!)
• Hot Springs: 20 (nothing like a good soak)
• Bears: 11 (see above paragraph on human stupidity)
• Froze to death: 8 (booze was involved in some of these)
• Avalanche: 8 (this number is much higher when the entire ecosystem is considered)
• Lightening: 5 (I am surprised this number is so low, given some of the close calls I’ve had)
• Ingestion of water hemlock: 3 (“It looked like edible yampa”)
• Falling trees: 3 (not including logging/tree-felling accidents)
• Bison: 2 (one might argue that these beasts can do better!)
• Falling rocks: 2 (not including getting conked by rocks thrown by other humans)
• Embankment cave-ins: 1 (go figure)
• Hydrogen Sulfide gas: 1 (in a construction pit; we’ll still not include these last two examples of real bad luck in our pre-trip safety talk).

So there you have it. Of course, the history of Yellowstone includes numerous murders, suicides, construction accidents, stagecoach wrecks, and Indian wars, none of which are terribly likely to befall our clients. All we ask (well, almost all) of our clients is that they pay attention to the guide and try real hard not to fall off a cliff, drown or slip into a steamy cauldron of boiling water. And we promise to be real careful on the drive to the trail. So sleep tight, for the bed bears are unlikely to bite!

Want to learn more about Yellowstone guided hikes or are you ready to book your Yellowstone backpacking trip? If so, then click on the previous link.

Backpacking or canoeing with your child, teen or young adult can be a very rewarding experience. Most parents who trek the backcountry with their offspring on a Big Wild Adventure share with us, at trips’ end, that it was one of the best weeks ever spent with their young. We can’t take credit for the transformation families feel while roaming across the natural landscape or paddling downriver. We simply share the spectacular setting, equipment, food, safety and skills and then sit back and watch while wild nature works her magic.

Wilderness is where and how humans evolved. The skills used in the wilds are authentic and necessary. Many suburban and urban families have lost the opportunity for involvement with nature due to loss of access to native landscapes close to home. Diminishment of what is truly wild in our culture diminishes us as individuals. And it deprives our communities of healthy, creative citizens shaped by the complete habitats that help to continue our evolution.

Choosing a vacation that leaves behind the hectic pace created by endless technological distraction is a good start towards engaging appropriately with our biological destiny. In the wilderness there’s no competition with obligations to formal learning, work, friends or scheduled sports. This leaves time for discovering together the challenges and joys inherent to outdoor adventure.

If this is your first wild adventure together, your individual development of competence and confidence will occur on more of an equal footing (always empowering to the youth) than happens in more “civilized” endeavors. It is the perfect time to demonstrate and appreciate each others’ resourcefulness, honoring the qualities that make people unique. Most parents on our trips are impressed by the resiliency and independence of their kids in the wild.

Depending on your child’s age and physical abilities, our trips are designed to foster affinity of place through appropriate interaction. Whether it is an established base camp with easy day hikes for the younger set, or a physically challenging trek across various kinds of terrain for the young adult, we have time to enjoy our surroundings. Time to stare with awe and wonder at native wildlife, watch the clouds roll by, sit by a gurgling stream, giggle in the tent, or sleep together under the stars (oh, did you see that one?!). Or share a brilliant sunset or serene moonrise, listen to an elk bugle or wolf howl, eat huckleberries along the trail, gulp clear ice cold water from the stream, relax around the campfire — these are priceless memories, never forgotten.

In the process you have engaged your body, mind and soul. By the end of the trip, you’ve reflected and reaffirmed what you intrinsically knew all along: the essential self-awareness that you and your kids were born to be wild.

Spring is in the air! A traditional time of rebirth, spring gets me thinking about personal renewal practices. Cognitive health experts agree that higher brain functioning requires down time. Indeed, hitting the reset button is essential to prepare the brain for more to come.

Making time to reconnect with myself while defined by a wild place, is the process I use. Poking around in the out of doors is a good opportunity to reevaluate life choices. When hiking along a trail, the sights, sounds and smells of nature work their magic, freeing the mind. While my body wanders, so does my brain.

My reverence for wilderness includes a reverence for my animal self. Wilderness means “self-willed”, an apt description for stream of consciousness experienced as boots trod uneven ground. Self-authority asserts itself while rambling over mountains, down canyons and through creeks. By the end of a week in the wilderness, the body is stronger and so is the soul. I find I have reaffirmed my intrinsic value; my right to pursue my own good, in my own way, in my own time. Wilderness travel enables me to make choices that help me to love myself the most.

In the strict sense of the word, vacation means to vacate. To leave behind our increasingly complex culture. On a trek in the backcountry, the constant change of the landscape is exhilarating. The bonus is this: I change with it.

During these uncertain times of national and international turmoil, I am increasingly grateful to find myself in a country rich enough to have relatively healthy public lands, some of which have been reserved for native biodiversity and natural processes. Experiencing public lands is essential to maintaining ourselves as well as our wildlands. Wild places need wild people as much as wild people need wild places. So this spring, if you feel your sap rising, in the interest of what is natural within and without, I highly recommend taking a walk on the wild side. Consider a trip with Big Wild Adventures. You’ll be glad you did.

Being aware of the natural world is a trait shared by many of the folks who trek with us on our week-long backpacking and canoe trips. Whether it is a family making an initial connection with their national park lands, such as Yellowstone, or return clients reconnecting with a favorite ponderosa pine forest, red rock canyon or high country lake, being outside in the Big Wild is more than a physical adventure. It can also be an adventure of the soul and intellect.

In a culture of increased technological awareness, let’s not leave behind essential knowlege of our natural surroundings. Perhaps you haven’t. Maybe you and your family and friends can already trace the water you drink from precipitation to your tap, or know the average rainfall in your area. You might know what direction rain and snow storms come from, and the last time a fire burned the area where you live. If your are a gardener you may know the length of the growing season, edible native plants, which grasses are native, and how these plants relate to each other. On hikes, you might point out which native spring wildflowers are among the first to bloom in your area.

Kids you hang out with may know the finalists on American Idol, but do they also know the primary geological event or process that influences the landform where you live and what soil series you stand on? Can they name their favorite fictional characters and 5 resident and 5 migratory birds in your area? Can you?

Quick, point north from where you are sitting. How many days until the moon is full? Being well-rounded makes us interesting and better prepared to face life’s inevitable challenges. Just as certain species and landscapes have become extinct where you live, certain experiences are also becoming extinct. Consider turning off the screens and turning on reality. Go outside. Be wild.

As Valentine’s Day approaches, I find myself reflecting on my loves and passions. A consistent love since early childhood has been wild places and their wild life. At a very young age I had a profound experience in Yosemite National Park. I was alone in a cathedral forest looking at long shafts of sparkling light reaching down from sky to earth. I felt an overwhelming sense of awe and wonder, accompanied by a sense of belonging. Over the decades these feelings have not diminished, but have expanded as I continue to wander in wild landscapes.

I cannot adequately describe experiencing the cold pummeling power of the San Gabriel River on my childish body, as it rushed through that Wilderness. Or the black bear I encountered alone, at age 8, while transfixed, staring at a large boulder completely covered by lady bugs. Imagine my surprise as the bear’s long, pink, sticky tongue demonstrated the food chain.

As an adult, I intentionally chose my home ground in the Rocky Mountains because of its proximity to big chunks of Wilderness. Over the years, I have been fortunate enough to stand in a never ending migration of caribou in Alaska, and to have wondered at the immense sound of wind generated by the flapping of hundreds of Sandhill crane wings rising from the waters of the Okefenokee swamp, followed by their loud, lingering calls above my canoe.

From alligators to elephants in the rivers I’ve paddled, to moose chasing me, rattlesnakes warning me, grizzly bears ignoring me and elk and wolves bugling and howling around me, I have been transformed in the wilder parts of our planet.

My passion for wild places has been a vital part of who I am and what I do. Sharing opportunities with family, friends and clients to find their wild, primal selves has been a joy. Environmental activism has also been a meaningful endeavor for me. It is my way of returning the love I’ve found in wilderness. Thank you to all who support this work.

Whether it is a trip with Big Wild Adventures or simply time spent watching a sunrise, the clouds rolling by, the northern lights, a bird on a thermal, the sudden onset of a storm or the setting sun illuminating the landscape, my Valentine wish for you is to be part of something bigger than yourself. Something wild and beautiful that makes your heart sing and your spirit soar.

Camping in Yellowstone, the world’s first national park, is not just an iconic American experience, but if done right, it can be one of life’s most memorable and wondrous events. There are two approaches to Yellowstone camping.

The most popular approach is to camp in an official national park campground, all of which are pretty much alongside a paved road. Otherwise known as “car camping”, this is the well-known scene of RV’s, campers, trailers and even an occasional tent. Nothing here much resembles wilderness, but at least some of the folks leave their fiberglass fortresses long enough to view the stars. Some people, by the way, don’t consider sleeping in a $90,000 mass of motorized upholstery surrounded by hundreds of other humans to be “camping”, but for now, let’s not quibble about terminology.

The other way to camp in Yellowstone is to get out into the backcountry and really explore this unique landscape. And what a landscape it is! From snowy sky-scraping peaks to rugged canyons to the vast high rolling interior plateau,Yellowstone’s backcountry diversity is enough to make one’s head spin. Think geysers and hot springs, huge lakes and amazing rivers, waterfalls, gigantic meadows and endless forests of deep green conifers punctuated by occasional white-trunked aspens. And then there’s the wildlife, which is probably unmatched anywhere in the temperate latitudes of planet Earth!

Best of all, about 95% of Yellowstone is roadless backcountry, true wilderness. And because most of the park boundary is bordered by large areas of designated national forest Wilderness with no intervening roads or fences, Yellowstone includes parts of some of the biggest blocks of contiguous roadless area left in the U.S. south of Alaska. In fact, the most distant location from a road in the lower 48 states is just outside the southeast corner of the park!

The best way to experience this world class wilderness is to go backpacking. There are many dozens of primitive campsites scattered around the park backcountry, and they are open to anyone who first obtains a permit from the Park Service. Big Wild Adventures knows these campsites and the Yellowstone backcountry better than anyone, and offers a variety of treks ranging from 5 to 10 days in length, in various parts of Yellowstone. Oh yes, each camp is used exclusively by the party that has reserved it for a given night.

Most campsites, not all, allow campfires in the designated fire-pits. Whatever you do, be careful with food! Don’t inadvertently feed a bear. A fed bear is a dead bear. Keep a fanatically clean camp, pick up, burn or pack out all uneaten food scraps, and hang all food and other odoriferous substances high in a tree or over the food storage poles provided at most camps. Hang food whenever you’re away from camp, and of course, overnight. Also, make certain that the tents are set up well away from the food area. A hundred yards is best, but absolutely, set up at least fifty yards from the tasty goods. And never ever, no matter what, bring food inside a tent!

To briefly speak of the unspeakable, human waste and toilet paper should be buried in a 6-8″ deep “cat-hole” at least 100 feet from water. Also, please make sure that you don’t answer mother nature in a location that would otherwise make a good tent site. Bury it well and re-landscape the site. Nature will do the rest!

Assuming you’re physically fit enough to get around the beautiful Yellowstone backcountry with a backpack and essential camping items, the rewards for your efforts will linger for a lifetime. There’s unparalleled magic in a crackling campfire with primordial wolf music in the distance, with twilight fading into a black night punctuated by impossible numbers of impossibly bright stars. To wake up on a frosty early autumn morning and experience the sudden bugling of a majestic bull elk out in the meadow next to camp…..Or to soak in a delicious hot pool next to a one hundred foot waterfall….

Regarding bears, particularly grizzlies, 33 years of guiding in Yellowstone have convinced me that it is much safer, by far, to camp in the backcountry than it is to stay in or near a developed campground. Unless of course, you remain safely locked inside your Winnebago at all times. And what fun is that? You might as well stay in Peoria. The reason the backcountry is safer is really quite simple. There are fewer people there, and therefore you inherit fewer mistakes made by those who’ve preceded you. Fewer people who are sloppy with food means that the odds of encountering a dangerously food and human-habituated griz are much lower in the back of beyond than in the crowded front-country.

One other thing. Wilderness camping in Yellowstone isn’t for the timid. It’s for those who prefer to go for the gusto, as they say. Sometimes it rains. Or snows, maybe even in July. Depending upon your trip plan, there may be rivers to cross or mountains to ascend and many miles to cover. I can’t guarantee that every minute of your adventure will be unrelenting fun, but I can guarantee this: The Yellowstone backcountry has a way of transforming people. Make the effort to get away from the civilized trappings of the developed front-country for at least a few nights, and you will come away with a new perspective, a new strength, a new attitude, and a new appreciation for life on this miraculous planet that can never be taken away, not even if you live another ten lifetimes.

Let’s cut right to the chase. Backpacking (wilderness trekking) requires a certain level of physical fitness, yet it is a very basic, natural activity. After all, we upright two-legged Hominids evolved in the wilderness, and our ancestors spent many millennia walking through almost every kind of wilderness imaginable. It has been noted that we humans are “born to run”, but we are also, without doubt, born to walk.

Yet modern society has yanked the wild rug from under us, and nowadays — at least in most industrial countries — most people walk very little. Look around. Our society has become soft, an automated button-pushing wheeled and winged vestige of its animal past. Without debating the pros and cons of modern technology, let’s just say that arguably, the most obvious cost is our collective loss of physical fitness.

So wilderness trekking is basic to our nature, and truthfully, it’s usually not too tough for most folks, even beginners, if we begin with two assumptions. The first is that you’re not  terribly overweight. The second assumption is that you are not a cigarette addict. If you are, please quit smoking immediately or consider an alternative vacation to backpacking. Go where paramedics can quickly respond to your upcoming myocardial infarction. In other words, please have your cigarette-induced heart attack on someone else’s watch!

OK, you’re a reasonably lean non-smoker. And you’re fairly active. You actually walk places on a regular basis. You’ll likely do just fine on a relatively easy or moderate backpack trip with no additional work,

But if you’re contemplating a more rigorous trek, for example one rated “Fairly Strenuous” or “Strenuous” by Big Wild Adventures, a regular conditioning program becomes important. For that matter, we also strongly recommend a conditioning program even for easier treks, since increased fitness increases both your safety and pleasure on the trail.

Cardiovascular conditioning that utilizes the legs is most important. Running and power walking are best. However, running isn’t for everyone, especially if there are knee, back or ankle  problems. So a good power walk will also do the job. Power walks are best over hills, and even better with a weighted pack. Alternating runs with power walks is good, because cross-training minimizes wear and tear from repetitive motion and works a wide variety of muscles. Bicycling is also good cardio exercise, but only if you work hard by riding uphill for sustained periods or take reasonably rigorous prolonged rides.

Other good ways to maintain fitness include yoga, aerobic classes, tennis, basketball and related cardiovascular activities. Whatever you do, make sure that it’s fun!

For cardiovascular benefit, exercise a minimum of a half hour, 3 times per week, though longer more frequent workouts are recommended for our more strenuous treks. For the tougher trips, I suggest 4-5 times per week. That half-hour (minimum), by the way, is at a sustained high cardiovascular output. Even for the tougher treks, however, don’t feel like you have to train for the New York Marathon. Regular moderate exercise is generally best for most people. We all reach a point at which more is not better. And over-training risks a variety of muscle and joint injuries.

When I was 30, I could guide a backpack trek roughly every other week for almost half the year with very little intervening exercise. No more. These days, I workout in between trips and I now add a moderate level of regular weight training to my cardio program.  For most folks, though, weight training is not essential for backpacking. Yet some weight training is a great compliment to cardio-vascular exercise, especially as you age. That’s because it strengthens both muscles and joints and it keeps your aging bones strong.

Again, though, I’d like to emphasize that most healthy, active and relatively lean non-smokers are likely already fit for a moderate backpack adventure. Just taking plenty of regular walks is a great way to prepare for many wilderness treks!

Of course, we strongly recommend that before you begin any training program, you visit your physician so that she/he can give you the green light for rigorous exercise.

But remember, backpacking through the wilderness isn’t exotic, it’s the most natural thing in the world. We are designed for it.  Moreover, once folks begin a fitness program, they find that exercise isn’t just healthy, it’s addictive and it’s fun! It makes us feel good. It improves our mental acuity. And backpacking itself is one of the greatest all-around exercises known! As Terry and Renny Russell long ago wrote in On The Loose, “At least if a species has lost its animal strength, its individual members can have the fun of gaining it back again”,

The term “Adventure Travel” is popular nowadays, but its ever-expanding use has radically diminished its meaning.

For example, hut to hut hiking in the tame, pastoral Alps may be fun, but isn’t really “adventure” in the truest sense. Same goes for van-supported bicycle trips on paved highways and for guided/outfitted river trips where the guide rows the raft and all the client has to do is hang on, drink beer and wait for the multi-course dinner bell. There’s also helicopter skiing, where one exudes not an ounce of sweat to stand atop 3,000 vertical feet of unblemished “cold smoke”. Other examples abound.

Sure, all of these activities entail some level of risk, but risk and adventure are two different things. A drive on any L.A. freeway is risky, as is playing in the NFL, but neither is adventure. Yes, a river guide may flip the raft, hurling Middle America into the jaws of an icy Class IV rock garden, but really, such events are anomalies. And let’s face it, you got wet because the guide, not you, screwed up; personal responsibility was almost nil.

Not that there’s anything wrong with activities that are simply fun, where risks and unknowns are minimal and/or tightly controlled by professionals. Nor must one emulate Ernest Shackelton in order to be adventuresome.

Still, “adventure” implies both effort and unknowns. So I suggest that “adventure travel” implies that you either walk, ski, row, paddle, climb, crawl, or slither on your own, using your own muscle power, and therefore to at least some extent your own wits. Natures unknowns are magnified when you depend upon your own muscle power. And that’s good. It makes us more alive. Being rowed, helicoptered, driven or having your gear hauled by others can be fun, but it isn’t adventure in the old-fashioned sense of the word. And true adventure usually begins at the end of the road, not in civilization with its trappings and safety nets.

Real adventure begins when you enter wild country, preferably where there are large carnivores to keep us humble, where Ma Nature does not give a rat’s ass about the fate of individual Hominids. If you go on a guided trip where everything isn’t done for you, well, that’s adventuresome. Like a trek with Big Wild, where yes, we plan the trip plus we organize and prepare the food, but you still do the walking and carry your essential survival items on your own back. In other words, take at least some responsibility for your own well-being. Maybe then, with a straight face you’ll stake your claim to the term “adventure”.