Posts tagged wilderness
A U.S. wilderness area prohibits road-building and other forms of development. Are bridges on hiking trail permitted, or are all river crossings in wilderness areas necessarily unbridged?
If one needed to hike out and then come back to a certain spot, how could one temporarily mark their trail so that it is easy to follow back to that exact spot when the route back is not obvious? ...
Can a cormorant really manage to digest a huge, living eel, bones and all? Does the poor eel (it was quite a bright/pretty green color) stand any slim chance of escaping (that thrashing, biting, e...
If I'm hiking in the wilderness and my shoelace breaks, what's the best way to go about fixing it assuming I have no spare?
While this has happened about 22 years ago, I never really stopped thinking about it and still regard it as unsolved mystery. While I asked plenty outdoormen, nobody had this experience. Having rec...
I've done a lot of backpacking in my home state of Colorado. My pack and its contents is pretty light but not "ultralight", maybe 20 pounds including food. I'm considering something like these fo...
An example of the earthen material I have in mind, this video shows some daub prepared for a wattle-and-daub house at timestamp 7:45: https://youtu.be/wPWLlVVVDN0 Cob, cobb or clom (in Wales) i...
I want to go camping in the wilderness on my own, without anyone else around for miles. Is that even possible? I know a lot of national parks have designated areas, but surely they can't enforce th...
When venturing out into the wilderness, what are crucial things I should bring?
I am in process of immigrating from Russia to Canada. While I've fallen out of... Well, everything that includes movement... I have plans to resume wilderness trips after I finish immigration proce...
What are uses for red spruce (picea rubens) by humans in wilderness settings (e.g. in primitive technologies, bushcraft, wilderness survival, low-tech rural livelihoods, frontier homesteading)? Whi...
In this excellent answer, LBell quotes the U.S. definition of wilderness: (1) generally appears to have been affected primarily by the forces of nature, with the imprint of man's work substanti...
Background: This question is motivated by an accident that happened to my sister in a very rural area. She was on a fence and fell onto a t-post which basically impaled her, but which fell out by ...
I recently heard the term "Outdoor Influencers" relating to certain groups of people, including conservationists. Apparently some people have negative feelings about their activities, because they...
Related to this question, there are people advocating that most of the Grand Canyon National park be designated as Wilderness. What exactly would change in the allowed activities (some say it woul...
This 1998 Draft Wilderness Management Plan proposes to set aside large parts of Grand Canyon National Park as wilderness. However, despite large areas being declared "Wild" in the park backcountry...
One of the most debated issues concerning wilderness, in Italy, is the reintroduction (or bizarrely large increase in the population) of animals almost extinguished till recently. While in most c...
The United States is a very developed place. Sometimes this can prove to be challenging when trying to find a place to get away from everything, especially east of the Mississippi where I reside. I...
What should I do if an elephant is annoyed by my presence and if I can't outrun it?
Monkeys are funny, as well as dangerous sometimes. What precautions do I need to take when I am camping (under unavoidable circumstances) in a region where there are monkeys? EDIT: Referring to Mo...
I have been given conflicting information for how to minimize the impact of traveling in small groups in wilderness areas. For groups traveling off-trail in areas where it is appropriate I have hea...
The Norwegian directorate for nature management publishes a map of wilderness showing how far away a particular area is from heavy technical interventions, such as roads, electricity lines, hydro l...
Starting a fire can sometimes be hard enough when it's dry, let alone when it's tipping it down. But when it is, what steps should you follow to try to ensure the fire gets going successfully? I'm...
You run across a wire cable, or wire fence in the wild, with which you would have to interact in some way. How to check if electricity runs through it without having special tools? EDIT: As the qu...
When in the great outdoors, nature is bound to come calling, so what are some good natural toilet paper substitutes when the real thing isn't available?
While in the Wind River Mountains, I found a bronze plaque that marked the spot where a person's ashes where scattered, and while that was done in the early 1930s, it made me wonder if it would sti...
Currently bicycles are prohibited in federal wilderness areas in the United States. However there is a bill in the House of Representatives that would remove the prohibition. As one can imagine, t...
I will be in the path of total darkness during the solar eclipse of August 21, 2017. I plan to be in alpine wilderness (Oregon Cascades), but will adjust my location as needed so that there are no...
I am hiking in the wilderness, a round trip to civilization and back is at least 24 hours. I know where I am and I can return to the same spot. If my hiking partner dies, how can/should I protec...
How do you smelt and forge iron sources from & in the wilderness? People must have started somewhere with this sort of thing! I once saw a video from a primitive technology practitioner on Yo...
I may have reacted without thinking to the question about dealing with lice because I have never worried about getting lice on a wilderness trip. Upon reflection, I find I am genuinely interested...
What are some different ways I can signal for help in the wilderness? I'm looking for methods that apply in all seasons, particularly in the mountains, with forests or meadows & plateaus.
I've read one one of the US national forest or wilderness websites that when camping in the wild, one should camp at a certain distance from a water source. Should I understand a water source to m...
Carabiners are obviously essential in certain circumstances, such as with any type of climbing / rappelling. But are they a good tool to have generally as well, and if so what might be some example...
I know that there are exceptions to every rule. Like for example not all plants with leaves in groups of 3 are poisonous. Also there is mimicry in some plants to deter animals from eating it even ...
Of course we agree on the fact, that cellphones aren't that good in the great outdoors cause they just don't work if you are too far from civilization. That's why we use devices like Walkie-Talkies...
If I'm in the wilderness in a dry, hot climate without much vegetation and I'm running low on water, what land features and other potential signs can I look for to guide me to a drinkable water sou...
When on holiday, I want to get as far as possible from civilisation — the furthest I've come is seeing only a single cairn during a full day. In Scandinavia, hiking and camping is permitted unless ...
Yesterday I was out in the woods and had a runny nose. When I wanted to blow my nose I looked for maple leaves, because I knew what they were. Not sure if the list of bad choices is small enough ...
There are quite a lot of questions concerning GPS device usage, however I couldn't find any specific information on more passive usage (as in waiting for rescue). Say I have a watch and a phone wh...
I was thinking of heading to some of the northern California national forests, but I wasn't sure which to pick. I've read all the relevant links in each fs.udsa.gov website, including attractions, ...
As in the title really. In the hypothetical situation that I'm caught in the wilderness in winter and there's a heavy snow storm resulting in an unexpected level of snow, snow shoes could well come...
My understanding is that with severely hypothermic patients you want to keep them awake if possible. I'd heard moving a hypothermic patient is risky as you dont want to jostle them, some wilderness...
How can I find a nice, secluded cabin to rent, somewhere in the U.S. wilderness? This almost seems like a word of mouth kind of endeavor, asking friends and friends of friends if they own or know o...
Where are the wildest places in the south-western US? By "wild" I mean places where evidence of people or their lasting effect on the land are minimal. Particularly, I am looking for places with ...
Is there a relatively reliable way of calculating the time until sunset, without any specialist equipment, when I'm in the wilderness?
