Why Camping Is Important

One day last week I sent four e-mails throughout the United States, opened three “overnight” packages sent to my office, read five faxes, surfed the web for new sites, made and received a dozen telephone calls, went home and watched a news program on television about crime, viewed half of a movie I had taped on my videocassette recorder, ate a frozen pizza, and went to bed.

It was time, I thought to myself as I tried to sleep. Time to get away from these machines and services and satellite hookups that supposedly make my life easier, and go up on a mountaintop somewhere and stick my face in the dirt.

Well, maybe not literally. Maybe. But the point is that I needed to spend some time somewhere away from civilization, at a place where I could witness the strength and beauty and mystery of nature as it has been for millions of years—and before my fellow humans did such a good job of insulating us from it.

The need to forego modern, artificial comfort and convenience and reconnect with nature is quite natural. Humans have been enjoying the so-called good life for only a comparatively short time. Although there is evidence of Neanderthals first living in caves anywhere from 50,000 to 100,000 years ago, humans did not begin to form basic cities (and the practices of agriculture and animal domestication) until just 10,000 to 12,000 years ago. We all have an understandable biological reason to feel the urge to roast a freshly caught trout over a campfire somewhere in the wilderness, especially after experiencing some supposed improvement in life such as a “moving sidewalk.”

Unfortunately, the zeitgeist of the modern “outdoor experience”—going “back to nature” is another cliched term for the movement—is often misinterpreted in various media. Witness a recent television ad depicting a young man eating a bowl of breakfast cereal atop a misty peak at sunrise before, it is implied, he charges off deeper into the wildlands.The beauty and solitude of this compelling image belies the difficulty of experiencing such a dramatic moment—not to mention the impracticality of backpacking fresh milk up the side of a mountain.

Which is what brings us to this site. You're smart enough to want to learn something about camping before jumping in. For instance, I've seen more than a few people who evidently thought they knew enough about camping to spend a night in the woods—only to spend two hours fumbling around at a dark campsite trying to erect a tent before finally retreating to the back seat of their car with a sleeping bag in one hand and a dim flashlight in the other.

We have years of experience camping, hiking far into the wilds, spending the night on the ground and under the stars. We have learned quite a bit about the proper and improper ways to go about it. We have an innate love of both the sport and the natural world. So read and go forth and have fun by doing it right. And respect the wilderness while you are there, because it's really all that's left to define who we really are. You'll find that out once you're there.