D e s e r t E x p o s u r e
February 2012
Doing It Yourself
The lack of self-sufficiency in exploring the outdoors.
I define "self-sufficiency" as the ability of someone to be able to do for themselves without the benefit of others. Over the past couple of months I've been challenging readers on their ability to be self-sufficient in light of a possible catastrophe. I was cogitatin' over that premise this morning and began to wonder: Whatever has happened to us doing for ourselves?
Then I remembered a reader who had confronted me in person maybe back about a decade ago. He chided me for not writing more articles giving specific details on where to hike in Grant County; he said that he had only lived hereabouts for a year or so, and he was a hiker but didn't know where to go. He opined that it was my obligation as a writer to inform him and others of such.
I thought to myself that I had found my own places to explore and find — why couldn't this guy do the same?
In fact, as an outdoor writer, I often get that type of attitude from others. They want me to give them a shortcut to their outdoor experiences. They ask me to personally take them, or to show them where, how or even my secret spots to have success.
For instance, I've had more than one person who was traveling with me remark that they were amazed at how many roads and places I had been on and to. Some had lived here for years and yet they had never done so.
I usually answered that I just took the time and effort to go exploring every chance I got. For me to do this is the greater part of my outdoor experiences — to find and explore for myself without the benefit of others.
I do wonder why others who supposedly love the outdoors don't do the same?
I've come to my own answers and conclusions concerning this question — to you they may or may not be, accurate assessments:
1. They are just too lazy to go out and do for themselves; the effort is just too much.
Many years ago I had a friend here who sometimes acted as a guide for eastern hunters. He often related to me, at his amazement, that he was sometimes asked by overweight, out-of-shape, rich hunters even to shoot the game for them! It was just too much effort for them. He always refused, and in the end, it ruined him on guiding.
It's not always the client who has this enablement attitude; sometimes the guide will be found with it. A coupla years ago, I had just shot a Barbary sheep on the top of a steep mountain ridge, far above me and the guide.
He was amazed when I started up the mountain to retrieve it, telling me that nearly all of his clients waited for him to go fetch the animal. When we got up to the critter, I was beginning to prepare to help gut and drag the animal and he insisted that I not help. His reasoning was that no one ever did such and he wasn't used to it. He insisted that he do it all. You see, he had been acclimated to enabling all of those other people and he didn't know how to deal with a person who actually wanted to get involved.
And it's not just hunters who fall into this class; hikers and mountain bikers and others do the same. They want good trails to navigate but they are nowhere around when the time comes to do the hard work of clearing and repairing those trails!
Usually it is the same dozen folks who cut the fallen trees, rejuvenate forgotten springs or dig erosion barriers on hillsides.
2. Some people are just too durn busy and they treat their outdoor time like it was work. Because of this, they rely on others to arrange everything for them, even if it's only their spouse doing the pre-packing and cooking so they can just jump in and go.
If you happen to travel to California and you get to the eastern half at Friday afternoon, you will see a countless line of folks speeding towards the Colorado River, pulling their toys behind them. On Sunday afternoon, they will be speedily heading the other way.
And it is not just California and other urban areas that are guilty of this; many a time I have heard Grant County folks expressing the same sentiment. They will say that they only have Sunday off to "enjoy" the outdoors, and they must do it with gusto and speed! I wonder if it is ever relaxing for them to do so?
3. Another reason is fear. Some folks don't wanna do or try the outdoors; they'd rather someone else do it first.
I learned about "honey-holes" in the Gila River by donning a pair of old Levis and a pair of sneakies and wading down the stream without benefit of prior knowledge. Along the way, I'd find treacherous spots and deep places that bogged me down. In winter I even came across pockets of quicksand, however rare they were.
But in the process, I had fun and I found good fishin'. In the end, I have good memories I'd never trade for anything.
4. The last reason for no self-sufficiency is plain old ignorance. People just don't know how. For those of you in this boat, I say to just go out and do it, and in the process you will learn.
I learned to drive in mud and snow out here in that way. Sure I got stuck, and sometimes I got really good and stuck.
One of my most memorable days was the time about 15 years ago when I was hunting in January. It was a frozen road and travel was good. But when I came out on that same road along about 10 a.m., the ground had thawed. I hit a soft spot and sunk to the truck body.
To make a good story short, I lay on my stomach in cold, wet mud and with a small shovel I dug out the entire undercarriage by hand. It took hours. Then I had to cut and lay branches along the road before my path so my tires wouldn't sink again.
It sure ruined my day of hunting, but it created such a good memory and I learned a lot that day. I won't do that again! The experience and the learning were more valuable than any of my plans. I find myself telling that story often.
Months ago I was talking to two of the editors for well-known outdoor magazines I sometimes write for. I related that when I was a kid in the 1950s, I read magazines like Argosy, True Men and Outdoor Life.
Virtually all the articles were about adventures the writers had experienced and all of them were quite entertaining. I lamented that today's magazines aren't entertaining; they are informational.
Almost every article is about how to, where to, how much, what to buy, and whom to do it with. People want to be told everything, and not have any surprises. It happens with hiking mags, RV mags, rockhounding mags.
People don't know how to be self sufficient any longer, or at least, there are dang few who are. I find that both sad and bewildering.
And while I occasionally do write a column that is aimed at giving information, my main goal is to first make you think for yourself. Notice that I didn't say, make you agree with me! Second, my mission is to entertain you, if only for a brief minute as you read what I penned.
As always, keep the sun forever at your back, the wind forever in your face, and may The Forever God bless you too.