> "MATT MARINER BROZE" wrote "in part" >> Gathering information on campsites and widely distributing it will >> have the effect of drastically increasing the number of paddlers using >> and abusing the limited resources. Keep the BC coast a wilderness >> experience, do not sell it out by revealing the campsites you know >> about for the sake of taming and crowding it! Alas, for much of the area concerned, we are waaay past that point: it ain't wilderness any more. There are already too many people there; too many sight-seeing boats; too many flown-in visitors hitting hot spots; too many other parties competing for the scarce shoreside venues we all seek. It _was_ wilderness when Matt first visited it; it is, no longer. The motivation for delineating usable campsites for paddlers is to nail down turf for us, in the face of intense, all pervading threats from the private sector and other claimants who would exclude us from using beaches well known to the paddling community, by and large, and to reserve for later generations of paddlers lesser-known areas. Matt's description of the effect of the many hiking books produced in the early 1970's (and later) on sensitive and isolated areas of the Cascades of Washington is accurate. Only he and I will understand this reference: Ed Cooper's magnificent photo of Prussik Peak in the Enchantments, shown in full golden larch adornment, on the cover of the first edition of "1-2 Hikes" . Matt, I was freaking _there_, that fall of 1969, and watched Cooper set up for that photo (my first visit). For many years, I felt Cooper and Louise Marshall "ruined" the Enchantments by promoting the squat out of it, for the purpose of accelerating the process of reserving the Alpine Lakes Wilderness Area, in the face of heavy pressures to road and log the daylights out of it. It is forty years later. I think differently now. I feel population pressures would have done what Ed and Louise initiated, maybe delayed by a decade or so if all of us had kept the "secret" of the Enchantments, but that is all. It would have happened anyway. Anyone who has paddled Clayoquot Sound and similar areas recently would have to understand how desperate the situation is: development pressures are the true villain today. Strong measures are needed to fend them off, and strong medicine must be taken. It will have a bad taste going down, to some extent, but it is needed, nonetheless. We should be grateful to the dedicated souls in British Columbia who are working to save what we already know of and use (heavily, in some cases). I have abhorred guidebooks going on 45 years now, and I will go to my grave that way. But, we are no longer in the innocent time of 1969, 1959, 1949, or years before I was born. We have to take aggressive action to save what we all love on the beaches of BC. -- Dave Kruger Astoria, OR *************************************************************************** PaddleWise Paddling Mailing List - Any opinions or suggestions expressed here are solely those of the writer(s). You must assume the entire responsibility for reliance upon them. All postings copyright the author. Submissions: PaddleWise_at_PaddleWise.net Subscriptions: PaddleWise-request_at_PaddleWise.net Website: http://www.paddlewise.net/ ***************************************************************************Received on Sat Mar 07 2009 - 03:46:36 PST
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